EXPLODING THE MYTH: DO ALL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONTRIBUTE TO SUPERIOR QUALITY PERFORMANCE?

TLDR

In his landmark article on total quality management, Powell (1995) lamented the lack of large‑scale studies investigating quality management practices and performance. This study aims to investigate the relationship between quality management practices and performance using a large, random sample of manufacturing sites. The authors analyze data from this sample to assess the impact of various quality management practices. Quality practices cluster into nine dimensions, but only employee commitment, shared vision, and customer focus positively correlate with superior quality outcomes, whereas hard practices such as benchmarking, cellular work teams, advanced manufacturing technologies, and close supplier relations do not.

Abstract

In his landmark article on total quality management, Powell (1995) lamented the lack of large scale studies investigating quality management practices and performance. This study begins to fill that void using a large, random sample of manufacturing sites. The results show that quality practices can be categorized into nine dimensions. However, not all of them contribute to superior quality outcomes. “Employee commitment,” “shared vision,” and “customer focus” combine to yield a positive correlation with quality outcomes. Conversely, other “hard” quality practices, such as “benchmarking,” “cellular work teams,” “advanced manufacturing technologies,” and “close supplier relations” do not contribute to superior quality outcomes.