Total Quality Management Practices Among Manufacturing Firms in Ghana

Abstract

The ―total quality‖ concept is a general philosophy of management which includes all key requirements that contribute not only to customer-perceived quality, but also to customer satisfaction. The International organization for standardization defined Total Quality Management (TQM) as coordinated activities aimed at the control and direction of the organization towards quality. This has driven most organizations to provide products or services which consistently meet or exceed customers‘ expectations and on time with quality as the basis of efficacy. Although TQM is a proven approach for success in manufacturing, services and the public sector, several organizations failed in their campaigns because of many reasons like lack of top management commitment, ignoring customers and so on. It is therefore necessary for implementers of TQM to understand what the reliable and valid critical success factors of TQM are, and how these factors influence operational and business performances and excellence. However, in Ghana, very little is known on how TQM and ISO 9000 influence employee satisfaction, quality of product and customer satisfaction. This therefore requires Ghanaian manufacturing companies to comply with International Organization for Standards (ISO) 9000 in meeting customers‘ continuous demands for quality products. This study was conducted to determine the extent to which ISO 9000 certification and TQM is practiced among manufacturing firms in Ghana. The study adopted positivist approach whereby the researcher explored and empirically tested the factors that influences TQM and ISO 9000 implementation using quantitative techniques. Friedman rank test for multiple comparisons and Chi-square Test were used to ascertain whether the various factors have different impact on TQM implementation. The results from this study indicate that factors such as top management commitment, education and training, supplier-producer quality management, employee participation, process control and improvement, customer focus and reward and recognition contribute significantly to the successful implementation of TQM. Overall, TQM practice in Ghana is very low especially among indigenous Ghanaian manufacturing firms and cannot be described as a total approach. Regarding the extent of application of quality management, differences were observed between multinational firms with some level of expatriate management and indigenous Ghanaian firms owned and solely managed by Ghanaians with the former performing better. The differences were attributed to the level of top management commitment, employee participation, education and training, reward and recognition, supplier- producer quality management, process control and improvement and customer focus.