
APPLIED OPERATIONS RESEARCH / PRODUCTION
AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
ABSTRACTS
TOPICS
- Re-engineering
a Total Quality Organization - Abstract: This article describes
a case study of D2D Ltd, the manufacturing subsidiary of ICL. It makes
use of the results of primary field research at D2D, including formal interviews
and informal discussions with the senior management team, the quality manager
and an internal quality consultant from the ICL parent organisation, together
with extensive use of internal company data sources. Introduction: In the
1980s, total quality management (TQM) became the fashionable management
philosophy of the West. This acceptance from well-known companies such
as Xerox, Ford and IBM came about largely as a result of the success of
Japanese industry. Canon overtook Xerox in the copier field. Honda and
Toyota made huge inroads into the US automobile market. The Japanese had
spearheaded the quality movement throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and now
Western companies were determined to embrace the philosophy and practice
which had enabled them to gain such a strong global presence. Despite many
success stories, however, recent surveys have shown that up to 80 per cent
of companies adopting TQM fail to show significant benefits[1]. There have
been reasons put forward to explain this, ranging from an inability to
absorb what is primarily a Japanese philosophy and culture, to the fact
that TQM may take many years to show tangible benefits. The 1990s has seen
an explosion of interest in what has become known as business process re-engineering.
It promises to deliver rapid results and to be more suitable to accepted
Western management philosophies. However, only a few years after the introduction
of the term, there are reports that between 50 and 70 per cent of re-engineering
efforts fail to achieve the goals set for them[2]). Many observers are
now proclaiming the death of this the newest management "fad".
Ironically, the more notable reported business process re-engineering successes
have come from organizations with a strong tradition of total quality management.
Whereas there has been a substantial amount of academic work published
concerning TQM, to date there has been little on BPR. Indeed, the term
itself has been in use for only four years. There has, however, been a
recent explosion in the number of published case studies and comments from
workers in this area. Several books have also appeared over the last two
years. While much of this work is anecdotal, there has been a very clear
attempt by many workers to provide objective data.
EM HANDBOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS
EM HANDBOOK APPLIED OPERATIONS RESEARCH / PRODUCTION
AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT - SUBJECTS/TITLES