Problem: The increasing complexity of supply chains have created a need for more well-developed quality processes that all stakeholders understand and ultimately adopt. Considering that the automotive industry generally involves thousands of components and suppliers, it makes the automotive supply chain complex by nature, and therefore challenging to control. Thus, it is of interest to create a better understanding of how companies within this large network manage to ensure quality conformance.   Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore and understand the strategies that are employed by companies working within the automotive industry in order to realize a supply wide conformance within quality.   Method: Primary data were collected from seven interviews with representatives from six companies; three major automotive companies, two tier-one suppliers and one tier-two supplier. The findings were analyzed using thematic analysis with the aim of finding recurring themes and categories that could be further analyzed in relation to previous literature.   Findings: The findings show that there are four recurring areas in which companies work to ensure quality throughout their supply chain. These are (1) Standards & Systems, (2) Risk Minimizing Activities, (3) Organizational Culture, (4) Involvement & Development. Furthermore, a relationship between these four areas have been identified.

I investigate the association between large shareholder heterogeneity and firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. Specifically, I construct three measures of ownership heterogeneity based on the type, size, and monitoring aggressiveness of large shareholders present in a firm. Applying these three measures of heterogeneity, I examine whether large shareholder heterogeneity is associated with the variation in firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. I also examine new block formations to provide evidence on the consequences of large shareholder investment on firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. I find that the monitoring aggressiveness of large shareholders is positively associated with firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. These findings suggest that large aggressive shareholders constrain earnings management, but contribute to firms' overall information asymmetry. Further, using new blockholder data, I find that investments by large aggressive shareholders are positively associated with firms' accounting quality and firms' information asymmetry in the post investment period. This finding provides additional support to my hypotheses that large shareholders play an important role in firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. / by Joseph E. Trainor. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

A participação do segmento de serviços na economia mundial tem crescido a cada ano, superando a marca de 50% em diversos países. As dificuldades das empresas em oferecer e manter a qualidade de seus serviços ao longo deste crescimento gera uma preocupação global em promover e desenvolver pesquisas relacionadas ao tema. Neste contexto, o trabalho apresentado nesta dissertação tem por objetivo criar um modelo de ciclo de vida de projetos de melhoria de processos voltado para o setor de retaguarda (back-office) dos serviços. O trabalho é conduzido em campo através de uma pesquisa-ação que envolve uma instituição financeira multinacional. As pesquisas e as investigações focam os temas de gestão da qualidade, melhoria de processos e gerenciamento de projetos. No quesito metodológico, revisam-se os métodos de pesquisa comumente aplicados à Engenharia de Produção com especial ênfase ao método da pesquisa-ação, adotado neste trabalho. Após as revisões o foco é direcionado para a pesquisa de campo, os aprendizados e o processo de criação do modelo de ciclo de vida de projetos, detalhando suas fases, escopo, ferramentas e modelos de suporte. Além disso, destaca-se como os projetos desenvolvidos em campo contribuíram no referido modelo. Conclui-se argumentando como a opção pela pesquisa-ação dinamizou o trabalho desenvolvido proporcionando um ótimo equilíbrio entre contribuição cientifica e aplicação prática dos conceitos revisados. / The importance of the services sector on the global economy is growing bigger every year, exceeding 50% in many countries. The difficulties to sustain this growth along with quality and process improvement are currently an academic and organizational concern. This research focused on this topic through the development of a process improvement project life cycle to the back-office sector. The investigations went from process improvement, total quality management and project management to operations management research techniques, especially actionresearch, applied in this master\'s thesis. The evolution of an initial process improvement model through the action research performed at a multinational financial institution is shown, leading to the final model. Moreover the model is explored to the level of scope, duration, templates and tools. At the end, the conclusions, successes and limitations are presented along with the highlights of the chosen research method benefits and suggestions of futures researches on the proposed model and on related topics.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Nursing) / The number of healthcare institutions that has embraced Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) as an effective and efficient method of neonatal care especially in Edo State, Nigeria has not multiplied even after more than a decade of its recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2003. Nigeria ranks seventh among the ten African countries where newborns have the highest risk of dying with over 700 newborn deaths per10, 000 live births. This is worrisome because Edo State is one of the 36 states in Nigeria that contribute about 6,700 neonatal deaths to the 255,500 mortality rate recorded in Nigeria annually. This has led to a concern about the knowledge and attitude of the key drivers in neonatal care of simplified methods aimed at reducing neonatal mortality despite previous training efforts. The development of a strategy to enhance the early implementation of the WHO KMC guidelines in all healthcare facilities across the state was therefore conceptualized. Strategies to increase implementation are considered important to the success of KMC because reducing neonatal mortality rate is contextual. This research aimed to explore and describe the application of the KMC guidelines by the nurses, administrators and parents of preterm infants in the care of premature babies and to develop strategies to enhance its early implementation in healthcare facilities in Edo State, Nigeria.

Total Quality Management as a holistic management system is widely practical inevery organization these days and one of the foundations of TQM which should betaken into account in all functions of the company is continuous improvement.Customer satisfaction is an important topic in which continuous improvement play akey role and leads to enhance it. Therefore, it is very worthwhile for the organizationto define the designing new products/methods based on recent and future customerneeds as one of its main activities.Generally, during the development and before launching a new product/method,validation is a useful process to improve the quality and establish the qualification ofthat product/method.This project was conducted to perform a validation for a new calorimetric method byuse of DOE (Design Of Experiments) in “SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden”.The study have presented the results of implementing DOE in such a way that thenew calorimetric method is validated; besides it could determine the best condition inwhich the intended results could be achieved.This thesis is a completion part of the master program in Industrial Engineering with aspecialization in Quality and Environmental Management at University of Borås.

The overall objective of this thesis work is to highlight the general principles of TQM involvedand to point out how this approach has been and can be used to improve the quality of anacademic institution. This work has been specified for higher education of University College ofBorås, and it will cover the whole of institution, administrative structure, rather than academicarea, specific program, department, or services.This objective is conducted towards an evaluation and assessment of the current quality work ofthis university. In fact, the way in which this university is working with quality issues now, willbe compared with a TQM approach and the weaknesses and strengthens of the quality work ofthis institution will be recognized.After reviewing the current situation of this university college in the context of quality andidentifying possible existing problems, the authors will offer some recommendations andsuggestions for improvement. For this purpose, in the theoretical frame of reference, a specificTQM approach will be developed and some detail descriptions of terms involved in thisapproach will be reviewed.In order to reach to the objectives of this thesis work, researcher will use primary data in theform of interviews, and secondary data from literatures, scientific articles, and books andWebPages. In addition, the researchers will use abduction methodology within this research.In conclusion, authors are aim to provide a complete documentation in its kind in the field ofquality and Total Quality Management, which can facilitate this university college to improvethe quality of its higher education. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Top management commitment and employees empowerment is one of the most important and vital principle in total quality management, because it is often assumes to have a strong relationship with customer satisfaction. In TQM implementation top management commitment in creating an organizational climate that empowers employees is very imperative. Thus, this can be achieved with top management commitment in training employees and giving employees opportunities to be responsible for the quality of their work. TQM strategy brings about a turn around in corporate culture as compared to the old traditional system of management in which the top management simply give orders and the employees merely obey them. In this study we’ll show that TQM objective of quality improvement and customer satisfaction can be better achieve if the top management are committed to empower employees to be responsible for the quality of their work and also empowerment in relation to decision making authority and process. We’ll as well show that empowerment in TQM brings about a flattened organizational chart where there is a shared responsibility between the managers and the employees. Despite some arguments put forward by some researchers to criticize employee empowerment, we’ll as well show that employees’ empowerment and improved level of job satisfaction can be facilitated by top management leadership and commitment to the goal of customer satisfaction in TQM organization. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Orientador: Jorge Muniz Jr. / Coorientador: Antonio Faria Neto / Banca: Bruno Chaves Franco / Banca: Fernando Augusto Silva Marins / Resumo: Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar os Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (FCS) na certificação do Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade (SGQ), para identificar aqueles pertinentes às organizações públicas e classificá-los, por ordem de importância. Este estudo é delimitado no único instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D) público que atende ao setor aeroespacial brasileiro e, em 2011, estava certificado na Norma ABNT NBR 15:100 : 2004 - Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade - Aeroespacial - Modelo para garantia da qualidade em projeto, desenvolvimento, produção, instalações e serviços associados. Esse tema justifica-se devido ao predomínio de organizações certificadas na iniciativa privada em comparação com o setor público (menos de dois por cento do total de certificações em SGQ segundo o Instituto Nacional de Metrologia Normalização e Qualidade Industrial - INMETRO). O enfoque metodológico aplicado é uma pesquisa realizada em duas partes distintas. A primeira parte, qualitativa, realizada com os gestores, com cargo de chefia, no instituto, onde os fatores foram identificados. A segunda parte da pesquisa foi destinada a classificar os FCS, identificados por ordem de importância por meio do Método de Ordenação por Escala de Importância - MOEI. Os FCS identificados e classificados são apresentados para que, uma vez explanados, possam lançar uma luz sobre o tema visando facilitar e incrementar a busca da certificação, por novas organizações públicas / Abstract: The present study aims to analyze the Critical Success Factors (CSF) for certification of the Quality Management System (QMS) to identify those applicable to public organizations and rank them in order of importance. This study is restricted to the public institute of research, the unique that was working with the Brazilian aerospace industry which in 2011 was certified by ABNT NBR 15: 100: 2004 - Quality Management System - Aerospace - Model for ensuring quality in design, development, production, associated facilities and services. This theme is justified due to the predominance of of certified organizations in the private sector compared to the public sector (less than two percent of the total certifications in QMS according to the National Institute of Metrology Standardization and Industrial Quality - INMETRO). The methodological approach used is a survey conducted in two parts. The first part, qualitative held with managers, with management positions at the institute, where the factors were identified. The second part of the research was designed to classify the FCS, identified in order of importance through the Sorting Method for Importance of Scale - grind. Identified and classified FCS are presented so that, once explained, can shed light on the subject to facilitate and enhance the pursuit of certification for new public organizations / Mestre

Despite over 50 years of software engineering as a formal practice, contemporary developers of bespoke software follow development practices that result in low-quality products with high development and maintenance costs. This qualitative case study sought to identify strategies used by software and enterprise architects for applying architectural best practices to improve bespoke software quality and lower the total cost of ownership. The study population was application and enterprise architects associated with delivering bespoke software for the enterprise architecture team at a large enterprise in the Nashville, Tennessee metropolitan area. Interview data were collected from 7 enterprise or solution architects; in addition, 47 organizational documents were gathered. Guided by the principles of total quality management, thematic analysis was used to identify codes and themes related to management of quality in software solutions. Prominent themes included focusing on customer satisfaction, collaborating and communicating with all stakeholders, and defining boundaries and empowering people within those boundaries. The findings from this research have implications for positive social change, including improved work-life balance, morale, and productivity of software and enterprise architects through streamlining development and maintenance activities.

Manufacturing firms can incur losses of up to 100% due to costs of poor quality (COPQ) in the form of internal and external product failures, rework, and scrap. The purpose of this single case study was to explore what quality improvement strategies senior manufacturing production managers used to reduce COPQ and increase profit. The participants selected were 3 production managers in 1 small-sized manufacturing company in the southeastern region of the United States with successful strategies to lower COPQ. The conceptual framework of this study was based on total quality management theory. Data collection was through face-to-face interviews and from a review of company documents. Yin's 5-step process was used to analyze the data. Three key themes emerged during data analysis: continuous improvement, quality assurance, and institutionalizing training. Manufacturing managers can use these strategies to lower COPQ and increase profits. The findings can contribute to social change by increasing individuals' sense of dignity and self-worth through the manufacturing firm leaders' ability to increase employment rates.