Chang Yir Lirng. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-102). / Abstract also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.iv / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ix / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.xi / CHAPTER / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.6 / Chapter II. 1 --- Definition of Terms --- p.6 / Chapter II. 1.1 --- Definition of Quality --- p.6 / Chapter II. 1.2 --- Definition of Total Quality Management --- p.8 / Chapter II.2 --- Long-term Quality Strategic Planning --- p.8 / Chapter II.3 --- Quality Management in China --- p.9 / Chapter II.4 --- Quality and Financial Performance --- p.11 / Chapter II.5 --- "Comparison of Quality Management Approaches of Deming, Juran, and Crosby" --- p.13 / Chapter II.5.1 --- Edward Deming's Approach --- p.13 / Chapter II.5.2 --- Joseph Juran's Approach --- p.14 / Chapter II.5.3 --- Philip Crosby's Approach --- p.15 / Chapter II.5.4 --- Comparison of Quality Management Approaches --- p.16 / Chapter II.6 --- Evaluation of Quality Management Frameworks --- p.18 / Chapter II.6.1 --- International Quality Standards --- p.18 / Chapter II.6.2 --- The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award --- p.20 / Chapter III. --- "RESEARCH QUESTION, CONCEPTUAL CONSTRUCT AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS" / Chapter III. 1 --- Research Question --- p.21 / Chapter III.2 --- Research Hypothesis --- p.22 / Chapter IV. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY / Chapter IV.1 --- Research Design --- p.25 / Chapter IV.2 --- Conceptual Constructs --- p.26 / Chapter VI.3 --- Questionnaire Design --- p.28 / Chapter IV.3.1 --- Identification and Selection of Measurement Items in the Questionnaire --- p.28 / Chapter IV.3.2 --- Independent Variables --- p.28 / Chapter IV.3.3 --- Dependent Variables --- p.30 / Chapter IV.3.4 --- Measurement Method --- p.31 / Chapter VI.3.4 --- Translation --- p.32 / Chapter VI.4 --- Construction of measurement items for constructs of Quality Management --- p.33 / Chapter VI.5 --- Data Collection --- p.39 / Chapter V. --- HIGHLIGHT OF FINDINGS / Chapter V.1 --- Respondent Characteristics --- p.41 / Chapter V.2 --- Company Demographics --- p.44 / Chapter V.2.1 --- Company Size --- p.44 / Chapter V.2.2 --- Employees Turnover Rate --- p.45 / Chapter V.2.3 --- Company Sales Last Year --- p.45 / Chapter V.2.4 --- Number of Years Established --- p.46 / Chapter V.2.5 --- Employees Involved in Quality Improvement Activities --- p.46 / Chapter V.2.6 --- Other Company Information --- p.46 / Chapter V.2.7 --- Customer Perception of Company Performance --- p.49 / Chapter V.3 --- Quality Performance --- p.51 / Chapter V.3.1 --- Percent of Items Defective --- p.52 / Chapter V.3.2 --- Internal Waste and Scrap(%) --- p.52 / Chapter V.3.3 --- Returns and warranty --- p.52 / Chapter V.3.4 --- Rework costs --- p.53 / Chapter V.3.5 --- Training and development expenditures --- p.53 / Chapter V.4 --- Financial Performance --- p.54 / Chapter V.4.1 --- Last year's net profit --- p.54 / Chapter V.4.2 --- Last year's return on assets(ROA) --- p.55 / Chapter V.4.3 --- Past three years' return on assets(ROA) --- p.55 / Chapter V.4.4 --- Past three years' sales growth/decline --- p.55 / Chapter V.5 --- Quality Improvement Techniques --- p.56 / Chapter V.5.1 --- Formal Approach to Quality Improvement --- p.56 / Chapter V.5.2 --- Separate Quality Department --- p.58 / Chapter V.5.3 --- ISO 9000 Certification --- p.58 / Chapter V.5.4 --- Application of Quality Improvement Techniques --- p.60 / Chapter V.5.5 --- Quality Improvement - Understand and Specify Customer Requirements --- p.64 / Chapter V.6 --- Productivity Improvement Techniques --- p.66 / Application Of Productivity Improvement Techniques --- p.71 / Chapter VI. --- STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION / Chapter VI.1 --- Analysis of Construct Reliability --- p.73 / Chapter VI.2 --- Analysis of Validity --- p.73 / Chapter VI.2.1 --- Content Validity --- p.73 / Chapter VI.2.2 --- Construct Validity --- p.74 / Chapter VI.3 --- The Regression Model --- p.75 / Chapter VI.4 --- Quality Performance --- p.76 / Chapter VI.4.1 --- Items defective --- p.79 / Chapter VI.4.2 --- Waste and damage as % of sales --- p.80 / Chapter VI.4.3 --- Returns and warranty --- p.80 / Chapter VI.4.4 --- Inspection cost --- p.81 / Chapter VI.4.5 --- Rework --- p.82 / Chapter VI.5 --- Operating Performance --- p.83 / Net profit as % of sales --- p.83 / Chapter VI.6 --- Financial Performance --- p.87 / Chapter VI.6.1 --- Last year's net profit as % of asset --- p.90 / Chapter VI.6.2 --- Sales growth in last year --- p.91 / Chapter VI.6.3 --- Sales growth in past three years --- p.91 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUSION --- p.93 / Chapter VII.l --- Conclusion --- p.96 / Chapter VII.2 --- Limitation --- p.96 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.97 / APPENDIX --- p.103

There are several, well-known difficulties in building construction that often result in low productivity and poor quality. Recent efforts to minimize their effects resulted in partial improvements but the sources of the problems still exist. Within the manufacturing and service sectors, however, improvements were attained with the introduction of a new production philosophy - later identified as lean production - that initiated in Japan (1945) and was introduced in Europe and in the United States in the 1980's. The primary goal of lean production is the elimination of waste, seen as any non-value-added activity in the production system. The design and implementation of this innovative method of production involves the development of a comprehensive strategic planning by the organization and requires long-term capital and human resources investments. An academic movement, designated“lean construction" originated in the United States (1994) with the purpose of studying the applicability of the lean production philosophy for the AEC industry. Current lean construction research, however, advances toward improving construction processes at the project level, but limited researchers address the core motives for manufacturing organizations to shift from mass production to lean production. This thesis focuses on the level of understanding on organizational issues in the implementation of lean construction and seeks answers for fundamental strategy-related matters. The thesis provides results of investigating those issues from the perspective of the owners, through an on-line survey conducted within the higher education institutions segment and 1) concludes that lean construction is feasible for AEC firms that serve that market and 2) suggests the appropriate business strategy to efficiently compete in that market.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The theme of this thesis is an implementation of ISO 9001 methodology in small IT companies and its influence on an activity of the company. This work serves as an informative material for those small IT companies which are considering or have already decided to implement the quality management system. The main aim is to design and recommend a procedure in implementation of the quality management system, concerning the small IT companies. Next, we wanted to find out what benefits arise from the implementation of ISO 9001 methodology, what the advantages are, the disadvantages, costs of implementation, frequent problems and other similar characteristics. Information was found out by means of a questionnaire survey and interviews in chosen companies. Such information may be relevant for future decisions in similar companies.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Quality has always been a central concern in education. Parents are ready to pay more for the best value for their money, in order to give their children the quality education. The South African education system seems to have very sound policies, but one wonders if they are well implemented, and whether customers do in deed get what they expect (customer satisfaction) from the process. The Department of Education department introduced Integrated Quality Management System in 2003 as a strategy to be used in order to improve the quality of education and improve on the performance of educators in the country. The provincial department of education‟s attempts at implementing Integrated Quality Management System since early 2004 have not been without problems; however, more especially after the signing of the Agreement on the Occupational Specific Dispensation, there has been some uncertainty about the current status of Integrated Quality Management System. The purpose of this research is to investigate the extent to which service organisations such as public schools in Limpopo Province particularly in the Mankweng cluster deliver quality service as expected by their internal and external customers.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether Swedish dental clinics apply parts of Business Excellence models in their business operations and whether or not they are aware of doing so. The framework for this survey will be based on the success factors that we identify in the Swiss dental clinic Frenkenklinik AG, which is known to effectively apply theories behind Business Excellence. Background: An extensive range of research has been carried out regarding Business Excellence and its effect on manufacturing, service companies and even healthcare. Still, there is a lack of studies on how Business Excellence can change and improve the dental care sector. However, there is a clinic in Switzerland that has not only implemented Business Excellence, but done it so well as to win the prestigious EFQM Excellence Award. Therefore, we want to investigate what Frenkenklinik AG does, that makes them so successful and if dental clinics in Sweden are applying Business Excellence and if they are aware of the fact that what they do could be considered Business Excellence. Method: In order to answer the purpose of our thesis we had to employ a mixed method approach. We required a qualitative approach, in the form of semi-structured interviews, in order to find the factors that make Frenkenklinik AG so successful in their application of Business Excellence. After this, we used a quantitative method when surveying whether Swedish dental clinics employ activities that are part of a Business Excellence approach. Conclusion: In conclusion, we have identified five factors that have made Frenkenklinik successful at using Business Excellence. We then have found that Swedish dental clinics are certainly using parts of Business Excellence; however, they are not aware of actually having a Business Excellence approach. And lastly, we found recommendations for Swedish dental clinics to improve their journey towards Excellence.

Many of today’s schools are caught at the center of a perfect storm fueled by the pressures from a more demanding public, increased governmental accountability, warring political factions, shrinking resources, and new technologies and methodologies. Proponents of Quality Management/Continuous Improvement (QM/CI) have championed the philosophy for over two decades as a solution for addressing these kinds of pressures and systems problems. Unfortunately, QM/CI theory remains underdeveloped and subsequently often fails to align with or guide practice. Detert, Louis, and Schroeder propose that QM/CI theory is best explored through the organizational culture framework that borrows heavily from the work of Edgar Schein. According to Schein, organizational culture exists at the multiple levels of espoused values, material artifacts and creations, and underlying assumptions (deeply held organizational values that guide the norms of behavior). Detert and colleagues contend that there are “nine” core values that define the efficacy of QM/CI in school cultures. To assess the viability of these values, as lived out in the Leander ISD, Leander, Texas, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and was both confirmatory and exploratory in research intent. The Nine Core Values were examined through surveys, purposefully selected interviews, a review of the quality literature, on-site observations, and school documents, with the results triangulated to derive the findings and conclusions. Deeply and widely held values should be observable throughout the multiple levels of culture, expressed through espoused values, material artifacts and creations, and practices that reflect the norms of behavior. The findings and conclusions suggest that the first eight of the Nine Core Values are lived out in the Leander ISD as identifiable norms of behavior: shared vision, outside stakeholder involvement in educational decision-making, long term commitment, continuous improvement, employee involvement in improving the school, collaboration, fact-based decision-making, and focusing on processes rather than people. The ninth Core Value, “Quality can be improved within existing resources”, could not be corroborated across the methodological triangulations. The study also unearthed two additional Core Values, one associated with the organizational learning dimension of QM/CI, and a second incorporating the elimination of fear and blame.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.