Quality Management in SMEs - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal: Quality Management in SMEs Faculty Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Research Question III. Objectives IV. Critical Literature Review V. Quality Management Systems and Tools VI. Methodology VII. Timescale and Resources VIII. Reference I. Introduction According to the Small Business Service an agency of Department of Trade and Industry there was an estimated 4.3 million business enterprises in the UK at the start of 2005. There was an increase of 59,000 (1.4 per cent) from the start of 2004 in the number of business enterprise. The same study indicated that majority of these enterprise were small. It counts for 99.3% of the total enterprise. These enterprises have employees less than fifty. At the same time the medium sized enterprise with fifty to less than two hundred and fifty employees are 27,000 which is 0.6% of the total number of enterprises. The large enterprise which has more than 250 employees is just 0.1 percentages of the total enterprises. This indicates the importance of small and medium size enterprise. It accounts for more than fifty percent of employment and turnover in UK. Majority of these small and medium size organisations are the part of the value chain of production process of large organisations or other organisations. These are suppliers and vendors of various products and materials. The quality of the products of these organisations is crucial for the quality of the products of those organisations which use these products as essential part or raw material for their organisation. This indicates the importance of the quality concerns of the production material and process for these segments as well. Apart from that these organisations form a large employment sector. The appropriate working condition impacts society as a whole. This research proposal aims to study the significance of the quality management concerns of the SMEs in the recent past. The first section of the paper covers research question and objectives, followed by literature review and methodology. This is followed by the timescale and resources which would be required for the study. II. Research Question The research question of the study is as follows: How significant has been the quality management concerns of the SMEs in the recent past? III. Objectives The objective of the study is to understand Various quality management tools and standards which SME’s are adopting for the quality management in their organizations To find out the level of Quality Management concerns in the SME’s in UK Change in the Quality management concerns of SMEs in the recent past (last 10 years) and its impact. Impact of quality management standards adopted by SMEs in various industries and their outputs The quality management in SMEs has been one of the interesting topics of research in the business studies. One of the core areas of this study has been the varying definition of SMEs, which have made the topic complex to study. First of all for studying the significance of the quality management concerns of SMEs in the recent past it is important to understand various quality management tools and standards adopted by the SMEs of various sectors. These sectors can be manufacturing, service, agriculture or any other. This understanding will give an insight of the quality management tools adopted in SMEs which will include crucial information like when it has been implemented and what kind of changes resulted through these measures in product quality, process or overall working conditions. The understanding of the level of Quality Management concerns in the SME’s in UK will include primary research. In the research respondent from various level of different SMEs will be asked certain questions related to the quality management concerns of their organization. The next objective of the study is to find out change in the quality concerns in last 10 years. This will be achieved by comparing and analyzing the data collected in first two activities and data analysis of the available data from the various secondary resources. The impact of quality management standards adopted by SMEs in various industries and their outputs will be studied by comparing data collected from various sources. All these will cover in a comprehensive way the significance of quality management concerns of the SMEs in the recent past. The data across the various levels of the organizations, industries and sectors will be collected through primary data collection and reliable secondary sources. IV. Literature Review Scase and Goffee (1989) states that growth in small businesses is a complex matter to understand due to its multidimensional scope and character. It depends on the number of external and internal factors like ambitions of the owner, vision, intentions and competencies, internal organizational factors, region-specific resources and infrastructure, external relationships and network configurations (Storey 1994; Glancey 1998; Mitra and Matlay 2000; Shaw and Conway 2000). All these factors impact the small business’s growth. The growth of any small and medium company also depends on the level of competition and industry structure. McMahon, Holmes, Hutchinson & Forsaith (1993) observed rarity of substantial growth amongst SMEs world-wide. This was due to various factors. One of the primary factors for this was the ability of owner or manager. Beaver, Lashley, and Stewart (1998) state that competitive advantage in small businesses is an elusive concept, as it depends on actions and abilities of the principal role players like the owner and managers. The personal ability of the managers and owners impacts the performance and business direction. There are growing concerns of the quality across various industries. Due to these concerns it has become important for the SMEs to implement some kind of quality management tools. These quality management efforts will not only improve the quality of the product and process as well as provide a competitive advantage over others for being quality concerned. There have been various studies conducted to understand the importance of quality concerns in various industries and across various sectors. One of the challenges researchers and academicians faced to study the SMEs was due to the accurate definition of the SMEs. SMEs can be categorised on the basis of turnover, profitability, number of employees and other factors. There were other factors which impacted these studies like bureaucracy, complexity and managerial confusion over various decisions. There have been very less empirical studies conducted to study the quality concerns of SMEs. According to Ramsey (1998) and Kuratko, Goodale & Hornsby, (2001) the empirical research into the rate and success of implementation of quality initiatives in SMEs is largely considered to be inadequate. Worldwide the implementation of quality management standards and studies conducted to understand these has been very limited. Literature available for this particular area of studies is more often conceptual than empirical. The empirical studies conducted so far also has various limitations mainly due to the varying definition of SMEs. Husband & Mandal (1999) states that SMEs have been very slow to implement formal quality models, and where they have, the outcomes are inconclusive. In another study Chittenden, Poutziouris & Mukhtar (1998, p. 85) state that only small number of the small and mid sized firms from UK has registered itself for ISO 9000. The great majority of these firms have found that it has been expensive exercise for them. The benefits these small and mid sized companies have been major in the area of marketing and gave competitive advantages. The impact of improving the operational efficiencies has been lesser in extent for these companies. There has been a gap in the previous study to cover the changes in the SMEs due to the quality management efforts. This study will focus to understand the difference in the organisations which have adopted the quality management efforts and those which do not have adopted any quality management initiatives. V. Quality Management Systems and Tools Quality management is a long term commitment of any organisation. It has been initiated by the Japanese firms and later on spread to entire business world. There are various quality management tools which can be used by various SMEs to manage their quality related issues. There are various important factors of any quality management process. These are as follows: Team Customers Analytical and statistical tools Corporate Culture Leadership Training, human resource issues, and communication Basic components of Total quality management are as follows: 1. Processes Examination: The processes need to be examined for the complexity and issues that can hamper product or service quality. Examining processes will help in providing better service or producing a better product. This is the main area where quality gets affected rather than raw materials or people working on these processes. 2. Customer Satisfaction If company focuses on customer satisfaction and designs its services and processes around that than there are least chances of having quality problems. The customers include both internal and external customers. 3. Leadership Management should provide effective leadership and encourage leadership within the organisation. Effective leadership impacts the performance of workers in many ways. It can create an environment of quality concerned production, motivate employees, timely resolve conflicting issues or solve them before these can actually take shapes, encourage employees for better performances, team work and motivate them. 4. Commitment to quality This should come from the management side. Management should show the commitment towards quality and foster it to entire organisation. 5. Employee Empowerment and decision making authority: Employees should be empowered by adequate training, clear communication and education. Employees should be clear about the nature of business of their organisation, nature of task they are doing and the contributions they are making with their job to the organisation growth. Employees should be part of the decision making processes concerning to their departments and should be communicated about any changes or advancement as soon as possible. They should be involved in process improvement activities and encourage sharing their experiences or problems which they feel if rectified the productivity will grow. They should be encouraged to control, manage, and improve processes of their concerned departments and be part of the organisation’s quality control practices. 6. Team work Team work is one of the most important factors of any quality management processes. Teams can be built around the specific area of concern or the existing teams can be collaborated to work together towards some specific goals of Total quality management. The concept of Total quality management is built around the team work concept. It calls for making a cross functional team with a leader, facilitator and performers to accomplish change. This team is trained in the problem solving techniques to achieve the total quality management objectives. 7. Tools and techniques The process of Total quality management starts with the commitment from the each section of the organisation. The respective person, external consultant or team examines various processes, tasks and issues which are important for the organisation performance and productivity. These points are noted and recorded and brought under control through a quality improvement methodology. All the quality indicators and data is collected and compared time to time. 8. Long-term commitment Quality control is a long term commitment for any organisation. As stated by Avery & Zabel (1996) “TQM is based on the concept of incremental change, which leads to a gradual change in organizational culture. As the organization institutionalizes a philosophy of quality management, the areas where changes occur increase until the entire organization has been transformed into a more effective entity." VI. Methodology The data requirements for this study will include data from primary and secondary sources. The secondary data will include data from the secondary sources like government, the organisations which provide quality certificates and other sources. These data will be compiled together for the analysis. Secondary Data Collection The secondary data will be collected from the government organisations and agencies which offer quality management certificates like BSI. As stated on the BSI website “BSI British Standards is the National Standards Body of the UK and develops standards and standardization solutions to meet the needs of business and society”. The data related to SMEs registered themselves in last 10 years can be collected here. These SMEs can be contacted for the primary data collection. This will provide the change in the Quality management concerns of SMEs in the recent past (last 10 years) and its impact. Primary Data Collection: The primary data will be collected by a survey conducted in the SME sector with the help of structured questionnaire. The questionnaire will include questions like efforts SME has taken in order to improve their quality, major area of concerns, training and education provided to the employees, employees’ knowledge about the quality efforts of the SME and various others. The respondent will be from various level of the organisation. The study will focus SMEs with more than 50 employees. The effort will be to include 500 SME organisations from agriculture, manufacturing, construction, retail, service sector and other organisations. Fifty percent of the total SMEs contacted will be the companies which have been listed for some or other quality standards. The questionnaire will be filled up by the employees from various level of the organisation including the organisation head. This will provide information regarding the various quality management tools and standards which SME’s are adopting for the quality management in their organizations and the level of Quality Management concerns in the SME’s in UK. The data collected will be complied together and analysed with simple data analysis tools like Microsoft Excel or SPSS. VII. Timescale and Resources The time available for the study is from July 2007 to April 2008. Phase 1 In this phase the required material, information regarding various sources and the strategy for the rest of research will be solidified. This will be the preparation phase for the rest of the study. Phase 2 In this phase the secondary data will be collected from the various sources. The companies to be targeted for the primary research will be decided and list of the company will be prepared. The questionnaire will be prepared in this phase based on the study of secondary sources, available literature and previous work in the same area. This questionnaire will be used for the primary research. The questionnaire will cover the sections which will aim to study various aspects of quality management in the organisation as well as the objectives for which these quality management initiatives has been taken. Phase 3 In this phase primary data will be collected. This phase requires more time, energy and resources. This will include contacting people from various organisations and various level of the organisation. Phase 4 In the phase 4 all the data will be compiled together, compared and analysed. Phase 5 All the research reports and presentation of the study will be completed in this phase of study. Time Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 Table: Time scale for Research VIII. Reference Avery, C. and Zabel D. (1996) The Quality Management Sourcebook: An International Guide to Materials and Resources. Routledge. Place of Publication: New York. Stankard, M. F. (2002) Management Systems and Organizational Performance: The Quest for Excellence beyond ISO9000. Quorum Books: Westport Mulhern A., (1995) The SME Sector in Europe: A Broad Perspective, Journal of Small Business Management. Vol: 33. Iss: 3. International Council of Small Business Morrison, A, Breen J and Ali, S (2003) Small Business Growth: Intention, Ability, and Opportunity, Journal of Small Business Management Vol: 41. Iss: 4. International Council of Small Business Scase, R., and R. Goffee (1989). The Real World of the Small Business Owner. London: Routledge. Morrison, A. (2000). International Professional Development Program: Quality and Impact Assessment. Glasgow, Scotland: Scottish Tourism Research Unit, University of Strathclyde. Mitra, J., and H. Matlay (2000). "Toward the New Millennium: The Growth Potential of Innovative SMEs," paper presented at the ICSB World Conference, Brisbane, Australia, June. Shaw, E., and S. Conway (2000). "Networking and the Small Firm," in Enterprise and Small Business. Ed. S. Carter and D. Jones-Evans. Harlow, UK: Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 367-383 Storey, D. (1994). Understanding Small Business. London: Routledge. McMahon, R.G.P., Holmes, S., Hutchinson, P., & Forsaith, D. (1993). Small enterprise financial management: Theory and practice. Harcourt Brace, Sydney, New South Wales. Beaver, G., C. Lashley, and J. Stewart (1998). "Management Development," in The Management of Small Tourism & Hospitality Firms. Ed. R. Thomas. London: Cassell, 156-173 Ramsey, J. (1998). The Value of ISO 9000 Certification to a Small Business, Proceedings: Second International and Fifth National Research Conference on Quality Management, February, 145-156. Husband, S., & Mandal, P. (1999). Perceptions and Realities of Quality Methods in Australian Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises. Proceedings of the 12th Annual SEAANZ Conference, Victoria University of Technology, May, 143-157. Chittenden, F., Poutziouris, P., & Mukhtar, S-M. (1998). Small Firms and the ISO 9000 Approach to Quality Management. International Small Business Journal, 17(1), 73-88. A Study and Analysis of Management Training, Techniques for the Heads of SMEs, particularly, Using the Information and Communication, Final Report, 22nd December 2000, Contract DGENT 99/C/A3/31 S12.128934, Funded by DG Enterprise of the European Commission accessed on 17 November available at: Technologies (ICTs) STATISTICAL PRESS RELEASE accessed on 17 November available at http://www.sbs.gov.uk/SBS_Gov_files/researchandstats/SMEstats2005pr.pdf ISO 9000-2005 Quality management systems -- Fundamentals and vocabulary retrieved on 28 October 2006 from ISO 9000 retrieved on 28 October 2006 from Quality Management retrieved on 28 October 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_management Total Quality Management Glossary retrieved on 28 October 2006 from http://www.quality.org/TQM-MSI/TQM-glossary.html TQM Tools retrieved on 28 October 2006 from http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/dstools/represent/tqm.html Six Sigma Fact Sheet retrieved on 28 October 2006 from http://www.businessballs.com/sixsigmadtifactsheet.pdf Quality management retrieved on 28 October 2006 from http://www.businessballs.com/qualitymanagement.htm Implement - from Quality to Organisational Excellence retrieved on 28 October 2006 from http://www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/TQM_implementation_blueprint.pdf Process Understanding & Improvement retrieved on 28 October 2006 from http://www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/TQM_process_management.pdf Read More