International Journal for Quality Research

10

Authors: Joghee Ravichandran

Introduced by Shewhart, the traditional variable control chart for mean (X-bar Chart) is an effective tool for controlling and monitoring processes. Notwithstanding, the main disadvantage of X-bar chart is that the population standard deviation is unknown though the sample mean is an unbiased estimator of the population mean. There are many approaches to estimating the unknown standard deviation with the expertise available with the researchers and practitioners that may lead to varying conclusions. In this paper, an innovative approach is introduced to estimate the population standard deviation from the perspective of Six Sigma quality for the construction of the proposed control chart for mean called Six Sigma-based X-bar control chart. Under the assumption that the process is normal, in the proposed chart the population mean and standard deviation are drawn from the process specification from the perspective of Six Sigma quality. After discussing the aspects of the traditional X-bar control chart, the procedure for the construction of the proposed new Six Sigma-based X-bar control chart is presented. The new chart is capable of maintaining the process mean close to the target by variance reduction resulting in quality improvement. Also, it may be noted that at a point of time, the process, though under statistical control, may be maintaining a particular sigma quality level only while the goal is Six Sigma quality level of just 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Hence, as a practice of continuous quality improvement, it is suggested to use the proposed control chart every time with improvement till the goal of Six Sigma with 3.4 defects per million opportunities is achieved. An innovative cyclic approach for performing the continuous quality improvement activity is also presented. The construction of the proposed Six Sigma-based X-bar control chart is demonstrated using an illustrative example.

12

Authors: Gezahegn Tesfaye, Tesfu Berhane, Berihu Zenebe, Senait Asmelash

The Ethiopian industrial development strategy is characterized by export-led and labor intensive industrialization. The country is emerging as the most important investment destination in its apparel sector. Thought this sector is expected to generate more income from the export market, its export earnings remain trivial mainly due to the inefficient organizational resource utilization. One of the competent techniques that help companies to efficiently improve the use of their resources to increase their profit is linear programming. In apparel manufacturing firms, efficient use of materials such as fabrics and sewing threads and processing time at different stages of production as well as minimization of labor and materials cost are necessary to enhance their profitability. Cutting, sewing, and finishing operations deserve more attention for apparel process optimization. However, the issue of proper resource allocation remains an unsolved problem within the Ethiopian apparel industry. The aim of this research is to devise efficient resource utilization mechanism for Ethiopian apparel sector to improve their resource utilization and profitability, taking one of the garment factories engaged in the export market as a case study. Five types of products the company is currently producing, the amount of resources employed to produce each unit of the products, and the value of profit per unit from the sale of each products have been collected from the case company. The monthly availability of resources utilized and the monthly production volume of the five products have also been collected from the company. The data gathered was mathematically modeled using a linear programming technique, and solved using MS-Excel solver. The findings of the study depicts that all of the organizational resources are severely underutilized. This research proved that the resource utilization of the case company can be improved from 46.41% of the current resource utilization to 98.57%. This indicates that the new solution provides very significantly improvement in organizational resource utilization. At the same time, with the new solution, the total profit per month of the case company can be increased from 365,699 birr per month to 897,844 birr per month (i.e., with an increment of 145.5%). Finally, it is concluded that this remarkable profit increment of the company can certainly enhance its global competitiveness.

14

Authors: David Jimoh Kayode, Nurahimah Mohd Yusoff, Arsaythamby Veloo

This study attempts to validate process management scale using rigorous validation procedures. An adapted questionnaire comprising 77 items was administered to faculty members in two public universities in Nigeria. The data gathered were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis with SPSS 20.0 and SmartPLS 3.1.2 respectively. The findings of this study shows that process management is a third order reflective model with multidimensional constructs. The two dimension of process management administrative process and academic process has four and five dimensions respectively. The process management scale will therefore facilitate the identifications of elements that influence the effectiveness of higher education. The practical implications and methodological limitations are discussed.

16

Authors: Nebojsa Pavlovic

A crisis in management has led to the appearance of Authentic leadership. The aim of this work is to determine the characteristics of Authentic leadership in educational institutions and to respond to the question as to whether authentic leaders are satisfied with their job. The third aim is to determine differences among the researched regions. The sample included 227 randomly selected directors from primary and secondary schools in Serbia, Montenegro and the Republika Srpska. The research used an ALQ questionnaire for the estimation of leadership behaviour. Descriptions for the results prediction and multiple linear regressions were used. A multivariance analysis of variance was used to compare the groups. The research results showed that every fourth director is an authentic leader. Authentic leadership has a significant influence on job satisfaction through two aspects: internalised perspective and balanced processing. There are no differences in Authentic leadership in the researched areas. The results could be useful for educational institutions in countries where the research was conducted. Further research could be carried out in other countries while cultural differences should be taken into account. One limiting factor consists of the fact that the analysed data are obtained only from school directors. Leaders of educational institutions should provide management through the development of their own authenticity and the authenticity of their followers. The characteristics of Authentic leadership were reviewed and tested practically in the West-Balkan environment.

18

Authors: Jacek Karcz, Beata Slusarczyk

The functioning of courier companies is a vital component of modern trade. E-commerce services are changing the way of shopping. Along with them, also courier services change and become more advance. Customers of courier companies become more aware of quality, which they should expect from supplier of these services. The article presents the result of the research of the effectiveness and the timelines of deliveries realized by one of the terminals of a leading courier operator in Poland. The survey involved 55 courier routes over the course of 10 business days. The author analyses weak points of the supply chain and presents two solutions, which may improve quality of delivery processes.

20

Authors: Slavisa Moljevic

Quality infrastructure is developed on state level and covers standardization, accreditation, metrology and certification. It is a "hard" part of quality infrastructure. On the regional level there are "soft" factors such as quality level in organizations, education and training level, state support and so on. The key role of quality infrastructure is to be a basis for all quality improvement actions on lower i.e. organizational levels. It is also a basis for regional development. The influence of quality infrastructure on regional development has not been investigated enough, especially in transition states. That serves as motivation to the authors trying to define an integrative model of quality infrastructure and regional development. This model is partially verified in Bosnia and Hercegovina, being an example of transition economy. A part of the research has been presented in the paper.

32

Authors: Kassu Jilcha, Daniel Kitaw

This literature review focuses on researches undertaken since 1980s onwards. The purpose of the study is to identify existing gaps on workplace safety and health management and propose future research areas. The review adds value to existing electronic database through integration of researches' results. To identify existing gaps, a systematic literature review approach has been used. The reviews were undertaken through keywords and safety related topics. In the literature, various characteristics of workplace safety and health problems were found emanating from the lack of operational activities of the employees, internal working environment and external environment those impose hazards on employee temporarily, permanently and on working environments. The integration of multidisciplinary approaches and collaborative model of hub and peripheral industries to protect workplace safety hazards to develop multilevel model has been undermined in many researches. The other face of finding is that knowledge transfer mechanism and industrial topology factors are left. Some researches finding showed that they have focused on single problems related to health and health factors leaving universal improving workplace safety. In general, this literature reviews compare various studies output based on their research method and findings to fills gap and add value to a body of knowledge.