Total Quality Management (TQM): Barriers to Implementation

core eccentric way (TQM) Barriers to ImplementationPREFACEThis dissertation Proposal submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements forms part of a Dissertation theater for the Award of Master of recognition MSc in International Construction anxiety by the University of tub done its distance learning programme. The programme operates in Hong Kong in friendship with Hong Kong Universitys School of Professional and Continuing schooling (SPACE). This teaching examines the barriers faced by introducing to Vietnamese social organization organisations the implementation of summarise feeling Management (TQM). rule entirety property way (TQM) is still a new hold out for organisations in the Vietnamese social outline fabrication. Many locution organisations outside Vietnam gather in embraced the school of thought and techniques of TQM with enthusiasm and success, while Vietnam has been reluctant beca intake of issues and problems in introducing TQM systems and progr ams. These organisations need to establish a new strategy towards caliber vigilance if they wish to be more eventive and successful to give these structure organisations better war deal advantages. Although various studies stick out been undertaken into the fixingss affecting delays, cost overruns, quality, safety, and productivity, etc. and other problems in specific types of device projects, these studies seldom discuss common and general problems of construction projects. Thus, comprehensive studies on these problems ar essential. Since the problems ar rather contextual, the investigate ordain concentrate on a frame constitute for the implementation of TQM in Vietnamese construction organisations.The turnover of the construction attention re donations about 10 per penny of the GDP of most countries. The construction industry is therefore a life-sustaining element of the economy and has a signifi thronet effect on the dexterity and productivity of other industry s ectors. The Construction industry, though it is a study contrisolelyor to the economy of any country, is facing the problems of high fragmentation, low productivity, pathetic quality and lack of standards. It has not followed the lead of the manufacturing industry.Within the construction industry, architects, bill surveyors, engineers, contractors and various other specialists all take in, in addition to their special technical skills, their own trade or professional customs and practices. These have an effect on the construction process either singularly or collectively. These participants have differing traditions and often conflicting accusives. A key determinant that has inhibited industrys instruction execution has been found to be its fragmented and loosely coupled supply chains. completely these made the counselling of quality a difficult and complex problem for all.As a result, projects in the industry ar plagued by time and cost overruns. Frequently one reads i n the newspaper about construction projects that take too long to construct, go over budget, or let in disputes that may need to be resolved by legal essence or arbitration. The construction industry therefore has been acc utilise of being, at its worst, counterbalanceful, ineffectual and ineffective. Thus the reputation of the Vietnamese construction industry is ill meet for meeting competitive challenges of todays fast changing world where competitive molding is with those who manage their resources most effectively and offer a timely reply to the demands of the market. The construction industry in Vietnam still has some way to go in terms of developing and implementing earmark quality initiatives across the board. approachTotal fictitious character Management is a management approach that originated in the 1950s and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980s. Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organisation of a high society that stri ves to provide clients with products and services that satisfy their needs. TQM is a method by which management and employees can become involved in the endless rise of the output signal of goods and services. It is a combination of quality and management tools aimed at increasing fear and reducing losses due to wasteful practices. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the lodges operations, with processes being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations. angiotensin-converting enzyme aspect of TQM that has frustrated the construction industry the most has been the amount of quality. Although Total Quality Management has been a magic word, methods and techniques to implement the Quality Management program in the Vietnamese construction industry are still to be systematically and technically developed. The Vietnam construction industry is being viewed as one with poor quality emphasis compared to other sectors like the manufacturing and service sectors (Kubal, 1994 Kanji and Wong, 1998 Wong and Fung, 1999).Many criticisms have been directed to the construction industry for in general shoddy workmanship. It not only the nett product that is subject to criticisms but the processes, the people, the materials etc are under tremendous pressure for better quality in construction.Total quality management (TQM) is increasingly being adopted by construction companies overseas as an initiative to solve quality problems in the construction industry and to meet the needs of the customer around-the-clockly (Fung and Wong, 1995 Wong and Fung, 1999 Kanji and Wong, 1998 Jido, 1996 Sommerville, 1994). TQM has the potency to improve business results, greater customer orientation and satisfaction, worker involvement and fulfillment, team working and better management of workers deep consume companies.However, Vietnamese construction firms have been continually struggling with its implementation (Haupt and Whiteman, 2004). The implementation of a TQM philosophy within the organisations requires a cultural alteration (Sommerville et al, 1999) and its being recognised as an important aspect of total quality development (Adebanjo and Kohoe, 1998).The primary aspire of TQM is to provide excellence in customer satisfaction through continuous improvements of products and processes by the total involvement and dedication of each individual who is in any way a part of that product/process. It is a coordinate approach to improvement. If correctly applied, it go away assist a construction company in improving its feat.Quality management is a critical constituent to the successful management of construction projects. Quality on construction projects can be regarded as the fulfillment of expectations (i.e. the satisfaction) of those participants involved. The quality is a critical factor in determining project acceptance and resultant contractual recompense levels. Unfortunately the Vietnamese Construction ind ustry, and generally, has lagged behind other industries in implementing TQM. in that respect are various methods, which have been used by organisations in the construction industry to improve quality, employing mainly two major(ip) techniques management techniques such(prenominal) as quality control, quality assurance, total quality management and statistical techniques such as cost of quality and customer satisfaction. However, this does not imply that construction organisations have achieved the involve quality standard. On the other hand, the quality performance found in the construction industry is worse than before, as more serious problems continue to happen in the industry.The primary objective of this study is to develop and implement an effective TQM framework determine that would dish Vietnamese construction organisations to establish a foundation for TQM programs and condition continuous improvements and be more competitive- with tools and methodologies for the ide ntification of construction processes for continuous organisational improvement and customer satisfaction within the Vietnamese Construction Industry. driveS AND OBJECTIVESResearch Questions and ObjectivesA asseveration of the specific aims and objectives of the study is considered necessary to help frame the issue sufficiently to enable it to be studied effectively and to measure the extent of its achievement.AIMMain aim is to investigate and call the barriers of introducing Total Quality Management (TQM) in Vietnamese construction organisations and make preliminary proposals and considerations of TQM implementation outlining the introductory steps in managing a transition to a new quality system such as TQM.OBJECTIVESTo examine the TQM practices in Vietnamese construction organisationsTo investigate the affects of TQM on organisational performanceTo examine the kinship between TQM and organisational performance (commitment, resistance to change, culture)To develop a mindset of the organisations effectiveness of quality management initiativesTo determine if there is organisational or individual resistance to change by using TQM techniquesTo develop and formulate how to implement a TQM program systemThe authors investigate technique lead be a problem-solving approach, hence formulating a hypothesis ordain not deem applicable in this study. sign CORE QUESTIONS The research questions and stated objectives are translated into the following operational statements patch of the affects of TQM on organisational modern performance coif of barriers to introducing TQM in Vietnam construction organisationsPosition of the relationship between TQM and organisational performance or QMS (quality management systems)Position of organisations and individuals resisting to changePosition to provide march to suggest that western management practices such as total quality management (TQM) can be utilize successfully in Vietnam despite high cultural and organisational barr iers.Position of implementing TQM systems within the Vietnamese construction industry to be an effective continuous improvementRESEARCH METHODOLOGYLITERATURE RESEARCHThe objective of the research is to valuate TQM barriers of introducing and implementing initiatives in a number of Vietnamese contracting organisations to explain and identify similarities and differences in the implementation approach, benefits achieved, difficulties experienced and critical success factors. The field study will be based on the guidelines suggested by Yin (1989) and thus focus on contractor selection, focus on inquiry, which sort richness in data and data gathering procedures. Below are the proposed research stagesA comprehensive review of the relevant literature including a computer-assisted search will be undertaken in order to develop an understanding of previous work in the field of TQM.The exploration will be achieved through unstructured interviews and questionnaires with approximately 15-20 c ompanies/organisations that have stated they have a TQM system. Further interrogative sentence will decipher if these organisations have evidence of a systematic TQM system in place. Interviews with the aid of the authors questionnaire will take place to evaluate the level of quality effectiveness.The author will use these organisations once examined to study the manageable implementation of a systematic TQM.This stage will bring in concert and review the entropy collected in the previous stages in which the present TQM system has been studied.This stage will involve writing up the subject matter of the dissertation and should cover the chapters proposed in the following contentProposed Contents of DissertationIntroductionTotal Quality Management (TQM)- The ConceptImplementation of TQM calculative the case study and research methodologyAnalysing and evaluating the case study evidenceConclusions and further studiesReferences and AppendicesFIELD STUDY DESIGN AND CONTRACTOR SELECTI ONThe study research and report for this paper will be carried out in Vietnam, where an estimate of fifteen- twenty contracting organisations will be approached about the disposition of the research. The contractors considered for the study are considered to be well-established contractors who are capable of procuring a considerable range of construction facilities (building and civil engineering). Each contractor has several offices end-to-end Vietnam. Table 1 (sampling at present) will provide characteristics about the contractors used for this study. For reasons of confidentially the author cannot provide any more detail than that presented in Table 1. The information that will be provided by senior management will only be estimates so as to provide the indorser with an idea about the size the organisations involved with the research.The following descriptions are emaciated from Gay and Diehl (1992) and relate to the two main methodologies used in the researchCORRELATIONAL R ESEARCHCorrelational research attempts to determine whether, and to what degree, a relationship exists between two or more quantifiable variables The purpose of a correlational study may be to establish a relationship, or the lack of it or to use relationships in making predictions. Correlational studies typically assess a number of variables believed to be connect to a major complex variable, such as leadership. Variables found not to be extremely related are eliminated from further consideration variables that are highly related may suggest causal-comparative or experimental studies to determine if the relationships are causal.descriptive RESEARCHOnce again from Gay and Diehl (1992), descriptive research involves compile data in order to test hypodissertation or answer questions concerning the current status of the subject of the study. A descriptive study determines and reports the way things are. One common type of descriptive research involves assessing attitudes or opinion s towards individuals, organisations, events, or procedures pre-election semipolitical polls and market research surveys are examples of this type of descriptive research. Descriptive data are inveterately collected through a questionnaire survey, interviews, or observations.COMPETING OR LINKED RESEARCH PARADIGM?Whilst undertaking the Dissertation which will precede this Proposal and whilst preparing the Dissertation itself it became evident that the debate concerning the merits of quantitative tete-a-tete qualitative methodologies were relevant to considering how the research was to be yielded. As pointed out by Sekaran (1992), In the management and behavioral areas it is not always possible to conduct investigations that are 100% scientific Still, to the extent that we can design our research to ensure purposiveness, rigor, and the maximum possible testability, replicability, generalizability, objectivity, parsimony, and precision and confidence, we will have endeavoured to charter in scientific investigation. There exists a multi-methodological approach where, it is quite usual for a single study to combine quantitative and qualitative methods and to use primary and secondary data, (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2000). They continue, There are two major advantages to employing multi-methods in the same study. First, different methods can be used for different purposes in a study The second advantage of using multi-methods is that it enables triangulation1 to take place. ground on this pretext, the multi-methodological approach has been used for this research study.1 Triangulation refers to the use or different data collection methods within one study in order to ensure that the data are tailing you what you think they are telling you. For example, semi-structured group interviews may be valuable way or triangulating data collected by other means, such as a questionnaire.RESEARCH AND DATA COLLECTIONInterviews with questionnaires will be used as the primary source of data collection to focus the investigation and to ensure that a consistent line of inquiry is followed (Yin, 1989).The research will be carried out on as many competent construction organisations as possible (approximately 15-20) and are prepared to participate. In order to attempt to maximise the amour, the study will be introduced to the industrys senior executives, middle managers and contract managers who are direct employees of their organisations. This will help to eliminate noise factors that would result, if the study reached down to indirectly engaged multi-layers of domestic sub and sub-subcontractors. The research will be carried based on the following general methodologiesExamination of existing TQM practices of these organisations (if they exist) trace based on questionnaire submitted by this author (refer to Appendix 1 for sample questionnaire)Statistical synopsis to test for correlation in matched data from (a) and (b)(Interviews and interrogati ve of secondary data (reports, instructions, procedural documents) to test the suitability of the organisations ability to consider if TQM could be implemented as an evaluation tool for use in the Vietnamese construction industry).DATA STORAGEThe data storage provision for all data pertinent to this study will be in accordance with cleanse University policy and the guidelines contained in Dissertation noes Booklet. These provisions take on that the original research documents (such as verified interview transcriptions, returned pilot and final questionnaires) will be retained by Bath University and a model by the researcher, for a minimum period of five years.ETHICAL ISSUES any research for this dissertation will be conducted in accordance with the guidelines of Bath University. The research trail will be transparent and written try for will be sought from the construction organisations comprising the study group. Anonymity and confidentiality will be maintained at all times and all participation (including, individual/group interviews and questionnaire response, will be voluntary. Any private individual names (except those in public office) referred to on the interview tapes/Mini Discs, will not be transcribed. The tapes/Mini Discs will be erased once the transcripts have been verified as a true account of the interviews conducted. Transcripts, returned questionnaire forms, subsequent coded information and data analysis will be archived securely by the researcher, for the appropriate time required.FACILITIES AND RESOURCESThe researcher for this dissertation proposal will be trustworthy for meeting all expenses, including (but not restricted to) travel, translation, transcription, printing, postage, stationary, computer software and consumables required to complete the research programme.LIMITATIONSThe limitations of this study are perceived to be as followsOnly competent construction companies in Vietnam will be considered as the survey populationTo d ate there is no evidence or records (but will require further research) of previous studies or data analysis as a comparison to other industries in Vietnam or foreign at this stage.REFERENCESAdebanjo, D., and Kehoe D.,(1998), An evaluation of quality culture problems in UK companies, International journal of Quality Science, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 275-286.Flood, R. L., (1993), Beyond TQM, John Wiley and SonsFung, P. Wong, A. (1995) TQM in construction industry Hong Kong context, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on ISO 9000 and TQM, De Montfort University, Leicester, pp. 29-34.Gay, L.R. and Diehl, P.L., Research Methods for production line and Management. brand-new York Maxwell Macmillan International, (1992).Hart, D.R. (1994) Quality Handbook for the Architectural, Engineering and Construction residential district (Milwaukee, WI, ASQC Quality Press).Haupt, T. C., and Whiteman, D. E., (2004), Inhibiting factors of implementing total quality management on construction sites, The TQM Magazine, vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 166-173.Hildebrandt, S., Kkistensen, K., Kanji, G. Dahlgaard, J.J. (1991) Quality culture and TOM, Total Quality Management, vol.2, no.1, pp. 1-15.Jido, J. (1996), Quality management with TQM in Takenaka Corporation, Proceedings of International Conference on Quality, Yokohama.Kanji, G. Wong, A., (1998), Business Excellence model for supply chain management, Total Quality Management, vol. 10, no.8, pp. 1147-1168.Kanji, G.K. Wallace, W., (2000), Business excellence through customer satisfaction, Total Quality Management, vol. 11 no. 7, pp. 979-998.Kotter, J.P. and Heskett, J.L., Corporate agriculture and Performance, The Free Press, innovative York, NY, 1992.Kubal, M (1994), Engineered quality in construction partnering and TQM, McGraw-Hill, New York.Oakland, J S., (1993), Total quality management, Oxford Butterworth-Heinemann.Oakland, J., (2000), Total quality management textbook with cases, 2nd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann.Row linson, S.M. Walker, A. (1995) The Construction Industry in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, Longman).Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. Research Methods for Business Students. Pearson Education Limited, England, (2000). 98-100.Sekaran, U. Research Methods for Business a skill building approach. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, (1992). 14.Sommerville, J. (1994), Multivariate barriers to total quality management within the construction industry, Total Quality Management, vol.5, no.5, pp. 289-298.Sommerville, J., Stocks, R. K. Robertson, H. W. (1999), Cultural dynamics for quality the polar pot model, Total Quality Management, Vol.10, Nos. 45, pp. 725-732Wong, A. Fung, P., (1999) Total quality management in the construction industry in Hong Kong a supply chain management perspective, Total Quality Management, vol. 10, no .2, pp. 199-208.Wong, A., (2000), Integrating supplier satisfaction with customer satisfaction, Total QualityYin, K. R. (1989) Case Study Research Design and Metho ds. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA