Factors influencing a successful transition from ISO 9000 to TQM

ISO 9000 impact on product quality in a defense procurement environment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the relationship between ISO 9001 conformance of suppliers and the quality of products they provide, within a procurement system of a manufacturer operating under contracts with the US Department of Defense.

Design/methodology/approach

Chi‐square tests of independence were performed to compare the receipt acceptance rate of material provided by ISO 9001‐conforming suppliers to that of non‐ISO 9001‐conforming suppliers, for more than 46,000 receipts representing 21 material commodity groups provided by almost 800 suppliers. Acceptance of receipts required conformance to both hardware and paperwork requirements. Tests were also performed on data subsets, to determine the impact of ISO 9001 conformance on product quality for each of the 21 material commodity groups, for manufacturers versus distributors, and for two material control levels.

Findings

For the overall data set, and for the majority of data subsets analyzed, the product quality of non‐ISO 9001‐conforming suppliers was significantly better than that of ISO 9001‐conforming suppliers. When only hardware non‐conformances were considered to cause rejections, the results were similar, but effect sizes were generally smaller.

Research limitations/implications

The quantities of receipts and suppliers included in this investigation were very large; however, care should be exercised in generalizing the results, because of the potential influence of the defense industry‐related requirements imposed upon the material and the suppliers.

Originality/value

This is believed to be the first paper to investigate the impact of ISO 9001 conformance on product quality using a large quantity of actual product data, for both ISO 9001‐conforming and non‐ISO 9001‐conforming suppliers, in contrast to numerous assessments of quality impact performed using interview and survey data.

The transformation of Lebanese firms from ISO 9000 certified to TQM

Over the past decade, the most effective method of implementing a quality system has been ISO 9000 certification. Lebanese companies have recently followed the same path of adopting and improving their status in quality systems. The overwhelming belief is that ISO 9000 is, by itself, not enough. It is a first stepping-stone in the road to business excellence, but ISO 9000 does not guarantee an improvement in the product or service being offered. All indications are that Total Quality Management (TQM) is the method for improving quality as a whole. This improvement is, of course, entirely reliant on the proper implementation and understanding of the scope and underlying objectives. The relatively new adoption of TQM as an effective tool in the struggle to achieve substantial improvements in quality is made clear in the results of a survey that are presented in this article. Recommendations as how to make the transition between ISO 9000 and TQM are made, and a discussion is provided of the need for organizational change, both internal and external, within companies in the Lebanese market. The aim of this work is to present a clear representation of what is actually occurring within the Lebanese domestic market with regards to the understanding the TQM philosophy.