Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "December, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-60). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 97-104)

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / The recent quality revolution has improved companies’ competitive positioning; they can utilise quality tools and methodology to improve performance in their markets and businesses. These tools have become easily attainable and popular due to the Internet. However, the Internet has also created higher consumer demand for quality products. The implementation of a quality management system is an effective method to improve product quality as well as improving business performance through documented and managed processes and activities. The ISO 9001 standard and the Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy are the most popular quality management systems used globally. For the current research, a case study was performed on ten South African firms to (1) gain knowledge of the issues these manufacturing firms face when working towards achieving high product quality levels under ISO certification, as well as (2) to identify successful quality practices implemented by firms that produce superior quality products. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument, and was addressed to employees of enterprises that have any relevance to quality practices of the company they work for, regardless of size. The focus areas of the questionnaire were quality performance, motivation for pursuing ISO 9001 certification, the use of quality tools and the perception that employees have of their firm’s soft elements. A conceptual model was designed for finding causal relationships between these variables. The outcomes of the current research indicated that the majority of the studied firms’ quality performance levels were above average and they proved to have good knowledge of the basic quality tools. The most frequently used quality tools for these South African firms were the activities of monitoring scrap and the use of Statistical Process Control (SPC) tools during production. The results also showed that the firms are very knowledgeable and aware of the importance of the soft elements of the system. The establishment of measurable quality objectives at relevant functions proved to be the soft element that firms were the most satisfied with. The paper concludes with a list of recommendations for organisations that wish to improve or further improve the quality of their products.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Museums are service-oriented information systems that provide access to information bearing materials contained in the museum's collections. Within museum environments, the primary vehicle for quality assurance and public accountability is the accreditation process of the American Association of Museums (AAM). Norbert Wiener founded the field of cybernetics, employing concepts of information feedback as a mechanism for system modification and control. W. Edwards Deming applied Wiener's principles to management theory, initiating the wave of change in manufacturing industries from production-driven to quality-driven systems. Today, the principles are embodied in the ISO 9000 International Standards for quality management systems (QMS), a globally-recognized set of standards, widely employed as a vehicle of quality management in manufacturing and service industries. The International Organization for Standardization defined a process for QMS registration against ISO 9001 that is similar in purpose to accreditation. This study's goals were to determine the degree of correspondence between elements of ISO 9001 and quality-related activities within museum environments, and to ascertain the relevance of ISO 9001-2000 as a technique of museum evaluation, parallel to accreditation. A content analysis compared museum activities to requirements specified in the ISO 9001-2000 International Standard. The study examined museum environment surrogates which consisted of (a) web sites of nine museum studies programs in the United States and (b) web sites of two museum professional associations, the AAM and the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Data items consisted of terms and phrases from the web sites and the associated context of each item. Affinity grouping of the data produced high degrees of correspondence to the categories and functional subcategories of ISO 9001. Many quality-related activities were found at the operational levels of museum environments, although not integrated as a QMS. If activities were unified as a QMS, the ISO 9001 Standard has potential for application as an evaluative technique in museum environments.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Quality, Durban University of Technology, 2010. / Over the years, organisations have been criticised for implementing the ISO 9000 Quality Management Standards purely as a marketing strategy without any commitment to improving quality and customer satisfaction. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard on performance and customer satisfaction. The objectives of the study included determining the level of effectiveness of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management with respect to enhanced leadership, continuous improvement and customer satisfaction; ascertaining the extent to which ISO 9004 and other business improvement approaches that were used to improve the performance of the organisation and determining the level of customer complaints before and after ISO 9001:2000 certification. This research investigation involved the case study approach which utilised both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The latter involved the analysis of the organisation’s production and customer complaints data pre- and post ISO 9001:2000 certification as well as the responses to the closed-ended questions in the questionnaire, while the former entailed an analysis of the responses to the open-ended questions in the questionnaire and a search of the literature to corroborate the findings of this study. Thirty-one of the fiftytwo employees of the organisation completed and returned the questionnaire that was administered. This represented a 60% response rate. The responses to the questionnaire were influenced by the employees’ level of training, knowledge and experience of the ISO 9001 quality management standard. Thus, the results cannot be generalised to other ISO 9001 certified organisations. The pre- and post study revealed that the level of customer complaints decreased following ISO 9001:2000 certification. Analysis of the responses to the questionnaire indicated that the ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard was, in most instances, perceived to be effective in ensuring customer satisfaction, leadership and continuous improvement. For future research, it is recommended that researchers investigate the impact of continuous improvement teams and the introduction of appropriate business improvement approaches on organisational performance and customer satisfaction in ISO 9001 certified organisations.

Thesis (M.Hous.M)--University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Also available in print.