| Abstract | Total Quality
Management
(TQM), has been accepted globally as a management
philosophy and practice to improve quality.
However, only
limited empirical studies have
been carried out in manufacturing SMEs in the Gulf countries.
The primary concern for
the manufacturing
SME
s in the
Middle East
who
want to compete
in the global market
is
that many competitors have been involved in quality improvement programs for decades
which initially give them a competitive edge. These companies have already developed
the top management commitment, infrastructure and other resources needed to sustain
continuous improvement (CI) practices.
Manufacturing companies in the
Middle East, on the other hand, have until recently often
lacked the knowledge and skills
essential
to develop and implement a total quality
program, hence struggle to improve the quality management system in comparison to the
manufacturing companies in the west. There are many reasons for this wide gap. The
causes include education, amount of time and capital spent on research on total
quality
management (TQM) and other quality management models, limited use of variety quality
control lean tools and techniques, limited access to information and communication
technology,
low labour productivity and a variety of other social cultural issues that
impede productivity and efficiency. This research investigates the actual causes of
difficulties in implementing and adopting TQM and CI practices that challenge the
manufacturing
SMEs
in the Gulf region in terms of quality management.
The research was designed to identify the current level of TQM implementation in
manufacturing SMEs
in the Gulf
States
and
investigate the TQM and CI Parameters that
affect the performance of the companies and to identify barriers that stop them from
implementing TQM in their company. The main objectives were to determine the
influencing factors and response to
TQM implementation within manufacturing SMEs.
A
first
stage
empirical
analysis was carried
out to establish the current state of quality
initiatives and identify the current level of knowledge regarding TQM and
critical success
factors
in manufacturing
SMEs
.
in the
Middle East
.
The main findings of the research include the impact of TQM practice on
manufacturing
SMEs in the
Middle East
, identification of critical success factors to implement TQM
effectively,
establishing the impact
of demographic
characteristics on
TQM and
significant and
positive
effect
on relationships
such as
education and
training, employee
participation
,
customer satisfaction and management commitment.
Based on the empirical findings a
TQM framework
was developed
that is more suitable
for Arab SMEs
to improve the quality management and business performance.
The
contribution to knowledge in this research is the development of a
framework to combine
selected CI tools that suit the Arab manufacturing SMEs and that will improve the
productivity, lead time, customer satisfaction, low cost, quality product and employee
skills.
The proposed TQM model was validated through a second stage empirical analysis. |
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