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QUALITY MANAGEMENT ABSTRACTS"Production Regimes and the Quality of Employment in Europe"
DUNCAN GALLIE, University of Oxford - Nuffield College Production regime theory has been one of the most innovative and influential recent contributions to neo-institutional debates about the varieties of capitalism. This review takes issue with its claim that there are major differences in the quality of work between the two principal regime types that are held to characterize European societies - coordinated market economies and liberal market economies - by examining the evidence for Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the UK. Although the broad pattern of skill differences corresponds reasonably well to the arguments of the theory, the evidence does not confirm the other claims about work and employment conditions, in particular with respect to employee job control, autonomous work teams, organizational participation, and job security. Rather, it points to the distinctiveness of the Scandinavian countries and hence to the importance of factors that lie outside the explanatory framework of the thesis. "Quality Management and Job Quality: How the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems Affects Employees and Employers"
DAVID I. LEVINE, University of California, San Francisco - Hastings College of the Law Several studies have examined how the ISO 9001 Quality Management System standard affects organizational outcomes such as profits. This is the first large-scale study to examine its effects on employee outcomes such as employment, earnings, and health and safety. We analyzed a matched sample of nearly 1,000 companies in California. ISO 9001 adopters subsequently had far lower organizational death rates than a matched control group of non-adopters. Among surviving employers, ISO adopters realized higher rates of growth of sales, employment, payroll, and average annual earnings. Injury rates also declined slightly at ISO 9001 adopters, although total injury costs did not. These results have implications for organizational theory, managers, and public policy. "A Study of Optimization of Process by Using Taguchi's Parameter Design Approach"
ZILLUR RAHMAN, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Taguchi Methods (TMs) are statistical methods developed by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods. Recently, TMs have been used in the areas of biotechnology, marketing, advertising industries, corporations and universities (Sreenivas Rao et al., 2004). TMs are intended as cost-effective method to improve the performance of a product by reducing its variability in the customer's usage conditions. To meet international competition (Logethetis, 1992) the quality should start from the stage of product design and carried to after sale service also. Quality achieved by process optimization is found to be very cost-effective in gaining and maintaining a competitive pos6ition in the world market. Taguchis's method (TM) of quality engineering encompasses all stages of product or process development, but the key element for achieving high quality and low cost is the parameter design. Through parameter design, optimal levels of process parameters are selected, such that the influence of uncontrollable factors causes minimum variation of system performance. The objective of this paper is to analyze and describe Taguchi's methodology of parameter design approach and to identify the various significant control and noise factors of a process to be optimized. The paper also presents the criteria for the use and selection of Orthogonal Arrays (OAs) and Signal-to-Noise ratio (S/N ratio) for designing experiments and minimizing Taguchi's quality variation caused by various noise factors. "Six Sigma in Indian Automotive Components Sector: A Survey"
PRABHUSHANKAR G. V., PSG College of Technology This paper examines the status and issues of Six Sigma program in Indian automotive components sector. Using an empirical approach, the paper traces improvements in sigma level, savings achieved, metrics used for measuring the performance of Six Sigma project and the methodologies adopted. The result from a survey of 25 companies suggests that financial constraint is the significant barrier for implementing Six Sigma. Increase in profitability and reduction in the cost of poor quality are the significant benefits. Critical Success Factors (CSFs) were analyzed and compared with earlier researches. Except 'linking Six Sigma to employees' and 'linking Six Sigma to suppliers' all other CSFs were found to be significant. The study finds that only a small percentage of automobile components sector has implemented Six Sigma. 'Not a statutory requirement' and 'not insisted by customers' are the prominent reasons for not implementing Six Sigma. This paper suggests that Indian automotive components sector implement Six Sigma along with ISO/TS 16949, in an integrated manner, in order to gain access to the global market. | |||||||||
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Solicitation of Abstracts
This abstracting journal distributes working and accepted papers concerning concepts of quality, quality control, and total quality management. The journal welcomes research with a focus on specifying the roles of defect prevention, customer responsiveness, and warranties. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, statistical quality control, customer value satisfaction, continuous improvement, and product and service delivery to meet diverse sectors of customers.
Distribution ServicesIf your Institution is interested in learning more about increasing readership for its research by becoming a Partner in Publishing or starting a Research Paper Series, please email: Management@SSRN.com. Distributed by:DirectorsPROD SUBJECT MATTER EJOURNALS MICHAEL C. JENSEN Please contact us at the above addresses with your comments, questions or suggestions for PROD-Sub.
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