Examines the total quality management (TQM) programmes of Maquiladora operations located on the Mexican border and benchmarks their quality practices vis‐à‐vis those in the USA. Six domains of TQM programmes (information and analysis, strategic quality planning, human resource development...

Strategic quality management represents a state wherein the organization’s total quality management (TQM) system is tightly interwoven with the strategy formulation process, thereby contributing to a sustainable competitive advantage. Numerous models have been proposed to describe how...

Engineering consulting firms involved in the design and construction of large‐scale industrial plants attempt to find flaws as early as possible in the design process to avoid more costly deviation corrections later on, particularly during and after construction. Deviation corrections can be...

Examines the development and benefits of quality management techniques in the UK advertising industry from both agency and client points of view. The research was conducted through a questionnaire survey of UK advertising agencies and advertising clients, and covers a wide range of issues,...

Despite the increasing international evidence that has identified quality of product and service and a culture of continuous improvement to be essential for long‐term competitive advantage, many Australian firms apparently remain unconvinced of the substantial gains available through a focused...

Looks at how the construction industry’s demand for better management of quality in construction projects is becoming increasingly important for every project participant. Says that one important aspect of a quality improvement programme is the cost of quality which is relatively new to...

Proposes that the improvement of an existing quality management system (QMS) through flexibility and innovation will increase product and service quality, which will in turn enhance and advance the organization’s business objective. Explores the “segmentalist” and “integrative”...

Quality assurance (QA) has been adopted by the public construction sectors in Asia since the introduction of ISO 9000 quality standards in 1987. The Governments of Singapore and Hong Kong have designed a series of quality infrastructure to promote, develop and improve the quality management...

Recent research in manufacturing has investigated the impact of enabling operations management (OM) practices on quality and time‐based performance separately. This research investigates the concurrent impact of supply management, human resources, just‐in‐time (JIT) and cross‐functional...

As a result of the increasing complexity of technology, processes and products, as well as worldwide pressures for competitive quality, quality terminology keeps expanding and changing. Although an internationally accepted quality vocabulary exists, namely ISO 8402: 1994, we still encounter...