insights regarding quality management systems as extended products

8/8/2019 Insights Regarding Quality Management Systems as Extended Products

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1. INTRODUCTION1. INTRODUCTION

In the past two decades, quality management systems(QMS) have become commodity products that any

respectable company wants to purchase and implement in

their organization

However, companies tend to have more dynamic desiresand expectations form a QMS, especially in the current

economic situation.

In this context, the authors of this paper believe that QMS, as

a knowledge product, can be further extended so thatcompanies could increase their potential benefits from its

use.


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2. THE RATIONALE FOR

IMPLEMENTING QMS

If the company develops its own informal management

system it is rather difficult to control all the inside factors,

so that possible problems, unnecessary costs, low quality

products and services or unsatisfied costumers, might

appear.

The solution proposed by the ISO 9001 model is to build a

structured management system based on the good

managerial practices gathered, distilled and validated by

ISOs expertise.


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3. EXTENDING THE QMS PRODUCT

The authors propose a new approach based on T. Levitt

and Ph. Kotler vision on extended product. The product

concept should start with client's expectations and desires

as well as the market's requirements.

Than when we refer to extended product it is necessary to

consider as the most important part the concept of

continuous improvement, sustainable development and

environmental protection. A simple representation of this

concept can be seen the next figure.


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Simple representation of extended product concept

based on T. Levitts and Ph. Kotlers vision


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As described by Ph. Kotler (1997), in the ProductsConditions field, are those elements which give the

extended products dimension, and most of the time this

elements make the difference between competitors, being

used by organizations for obtaining competitive advantage.

The general elements are:

Delivery

Warranty

Assembling and service

Contract terms


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The possible solution addressed in this paper discusses

the extension potential of each stage in the QMS

development process.

As such, in Table.1 is presented a model for thisundertaking, together with the required steps that a

consultant should assist a company within the possible

additional elements that it providing more value to the

customer:


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4. CASE STUDY

In order to test this concept a survey has been performed. Thedesign of the survey is based on a focus group from the North-

Western region of Romania.

Based on A.D.R. (2007) presentation we have identified six main

interest industries for Romanias North-West region: Automotive industry;

Furniture industry;

Tourism;

Information Technology and Communications;

Agriculture;

Higher education and research.


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4. CASE STUDY

On these fields authors have collaborated with companies thatagreed to answer to a series of questions regarding their satisfaction

on already implemented QMS and their opening to the new concept

of regarding QMS as an extended service.

Also other objective of this questionnaire was to indentify the real

reason why organizations pay for this kind of services. The major objective of the questionnaire, besides verifying the

extended product concept was to identity in what step of creating

and implementing QMS most problems appear and what was the

reason of their occurrence.

By understanding these problems consultancy organizations canimprove the model of QMS implementation.


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5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

In the above considerate sample of thirteen companies,from all six industries described earlier, we have identified

that 55.60 percent of companies from the target group had

bought this services for their cost and business

optimization, and the rest op 44.4 percent have

implemented QMS just as an image advantage.

The results indicate that almost 60 percent of the

companies had done their research in order to find the

right company to design and implement a QMS in their

businesses.


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5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

The validation of extended product/service concept

as a competitive advantage


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5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

This means that even if the companies were not very popular, thefact that they extended their product, the QMS service, was,

from the clients perspective, as important as if they were well

known and experienced companies.

Sustaining this concept, 12.50 percent of companies havedeclared that they would change they original QMS service

provider, if they could, for a consultancy provider with an

extended service, even if they would have to pay a higher price.

This result supports the idea that applying the concept of

extended product offers companies competitive advantage


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5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

Stages of implementation where problems occurred.Stages of implementation where problems occurred.


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5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

The main reasons for these problems can be resumed ascommunication deficits between employees and consultants.

For this reason personnel consider that the QMS is difficult to

understand and of course difficult to transmit to the whole

organization.

The QMS is seen as very bureaucratic, people do not

understand the purpose of this new hard work, and tend to

reject the consultants that are interfering in their job.


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5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

Real changes in organizations

after one year of QMS function


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5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

In the survey, authors propose the paradigms of continuousimprovement and sustainable development for extending the

QMS services.

The questionnaire reveals the fact that more than 50 percent of

the companies, that already have implemented a QMS, areinterested on improvement and development.

This can be done through: re-auditing, QMS upgrades, cost

reduction programs, and all the other services that a

consultancy organization with extended services can provide.


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6. CONCLUSIONS

Transforming quality systems into extended products bring amore concrete dimension to the approaches of continuous

improvement and sustainable development that many

companies are trying to implement.

Moreover, the concept and the issues regarding its validationcan serve to demonstrate the value creation potential of the

market for QMS development.

As shown in the case study results, an extended service will

bring consultancy organizations a competitive advantage, abetter place on the market and finally, more clients.


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6. CONCLUSIONS

From this information we can generate a short

Troubleshooting Guide for consultants that implement QMS

in order to obtain a better client satisfaction.

A clear orientation towards an improved and extendedservice in the field of QMS implementation assistance could

have a wide impact on the market, as it would not be confined

only to the companies that receive the assistance, but it

would extend its benefits to their own customers also.

insights regarding quality management systems as extended products

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