The aim of this research would be mainly be analysis and evaluation of the knowledge of TQM in Kuwait and the current practices of TQM being followed there. The whole research would be based on the empirical study that would be carried out through questionnaires and interviews within some of the oil companies of Kuwait. The main focus of the survey would be to find out the understanding and awareness of Total Quality Management in Kuwait, the extent of implementation of TQM in Kuwait, reasons for implementation of TQM, problems faced during TQM implementation in Kuwait.
Generally TQM practices to be followed by organizations depend upon their critical quality factors (CQF's). The other major focus of the study would be to find out the critical quality factors for implementing TQM in Kuwait. On the basis of this identification, a roadmap for Total Quality Management implementation in Kuwait would be suggested. An effort would be made to make the roadmap as universal and generic as possible so that it can also be used in similar economies as of Kuwait.
1.2 MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY
Although a lot of research and publications have been done for TQM, but a very little empirical work for developing countries have been carried out and for the case of Arab countries, especially that of Kuwait, it is very well true. From the very limited research carried out by the researchers like Sharad and Sulimani in 1994, Zairi et al in 1995, Aly in 1996, I has been found that Kuwait and the nearby regions are too far away from the maturity in case of practices of total quality management, the organizational climate and the culture required for the implementation of Total Quality Management. If the practices and systems are hostile to the teaching of TQM, then TQM cannot be effective in such environments. To tell where the Kuwait industries has to be is important, but along with that the other important thing is to first find out where the Kuwait industries are before going further. Therefore there is need of one such study and the present research is dedicated to that. The present study analyzes and evaluates current practices and knowledge of quality/TQM activities in Kuwait, in order to recognize the problems faced and to suggest a way forward.
1.3 AIM
To develop a roadmap for Total Quality Management implementation in Oil Companies of Kuwait
1.4 OBJECTIVES
The above stated aim would be complete d by performing the following objectives:
Extensive review to understand the Critical Quality Factors and Measure used currently
Exploring the current status and the practices followed in the Kuwait
Empirical study based on survey in the Oil Companies of Kuwait and nearby areas
Developing a generic roadmap for implementation of TQM in Oil Industries
1.5 PLANNED METHODOLOGY
To carry out the research thee important tasks for the research has been first found out and then the order of performing the different tasks has been decided keeping in mind the dependencies of each task on the other task. The tasks would be performed in the decided order one by one. Below is the list of the different tasks which have been identified and the sequence in which they would be performed
1. Understanding TQM techniques and practices in greater depth
2. Extensive Literature Review in order to find out the different Critical Quality Factors and Quality Measures used by various industries
3. Understanding the background of the Kuwait oil industries and understanding their current status and practices being followed
4. Developing a questionnaire and then conducting a pilot study with some well known oil industries of Kuwait, in order to improve the clarity of the survey form
5. Final questionnaire development, distribution into various organizations in Kuwait, conducting interviews and gathering of data
6. Analysis of the data gathered and drawing out conclusions on understanding and awareness of Total Quality Management in Kuwait, the extent of implementation of TQM in Kuwait, reasons for implementation of TQM, problems faced during TQM implementation in Kuwait
7. Thorough analysis of the gathered information and finding out the some important Critical Quality Factors, after referring to the literature survey done in step 2
8. Development of roadmap based on the identified CQF's for successful implementation of TQM in Oil Industries IN Kuwait
9. Making the roadmap as universal and generic as possible so that it can also be used in similar economies as of Kuwait
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Total Quality Management is philosophy of management which lay emphasis on the need to meet internal and external needs of the customers as well as on the importance of doing the things correctly at the first time itself. Oakland, 1995 defines TQM as an approach for improving effectiveness, competitiveness and flexibility of the entire organization. It thus can be considered as a method of organizing, planning and understanding different activities. Continuous improvement of the performance is the main concern of TQM. In order to achieve this people should have complete knowledge of what to do, when to do, where to do, ho to do, the right kind of tools needed to do and people should be able to measure the performance of the action and to get the feedbacks (Kanji et al, 1993). It is therefore a philosophy of quality improvement which involves continuous improvement of products, processes and services along with reduced cost and enhanced productivity. It is far broader and huge then the actual assurance and quality control measures. Companies involving TQM in their processes are able to see improvements at all the levels and the changes taking place are seen as the natural part of the activities. The principles and techniques of Total Quality Management are now well accepted and appreciated in almost all the countries and they form an integral part of every manager's tool kit (Swanson et al, 1999). According to Powell, 1995 TQM tools and techniques are adopted by most of the large firms in some or the other form and today to get quality awards has become a matter of great honor for each and every company whether it is operating in UK, USA, Australia, India, Europe, Japan, China etc. As discussed, for implementation of TQM major changes are required in the organization which will transform the culture, practices, processes, and beliefs etc of the organization. According to followers of the TQM, there are certain universal practices of TQM which when followed properly can lead to increase in performance (Pavett et al, 1998). The main aim of carrying out the literature review is to find out the critical dimensions, constructs and factors of TQM so that they can be used for conducting a study in Kuwait. To reach to consensus on the factors and dimensions of TQM is little complex and problematic because the factors and dimensions used by researchers lie in a broad range. Some of the researchers have focused on the programmatic and the technical properties while the others have focused on the philosophy of management. Very few of the researchers like (Ahire et al, 1996), (Porter, et al, 1996), (Zeitz, 1997), (Powell, 1995) have focused on the holistic nature of the TQM while developing the constructs. As a result the literature review is being carried out broadly used constructs.
A detailed review on the quality measurements for all this constructs has been presented. The results and the conclusions of this particular literature review can be very helpful for the organizations and managers to help them to identify the characteristics which will lead to an improvement in the productivity and quality and will reduce the cost. The relationship between the constructs presented here, can be used by managers as an initiative tool to assess the current measures, to assign resources and responsibilities and to identify the performance measures.
2.2 IDENTIFYING THE QUALITY DIMENSIONS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
In the past few years many of the companies have realized that the importance of emphasizing product quality as a strategic tool for competitive success (Belohav, 1993). The techniques and principles of TQM have now become an integral part of tool kit of all the managers. The philosophy of management based on TQM has gained a significant interest in many of the economies around the world. Kanji in 1990, called it as second industrial revolution. Most of the companies have implemented TQM in one form or the other. As discussed, for implementation of TQM major changes are required in the organization which will transform the culture, practices, processes, and beliefs etc of the organization. According to followers of the TQM, there are certain universal practices of TQM which when followed properly can lead to increase in performance (Pavett et al, 1998).
Many frameworks have been proposed by Crosby 1979, Deming 1982, Juran 1980 etc I order to achieve competitive success through total quality management. The common characteristic of all of these frameworks was that all of them identified a set of key variables which were supposed to be essential elements for attaining the enhanced quality results. The most important of all these frameworks is that of Deming. Deming emphasized the improvements in the services and the product quality by reduction in the variability and uncertainity at the design stage of the product. Deming described his philosophy as “A System of profound knowledge (SPK)". The SPK philosophy of Deming contained four main parts which included system appreciation, theory of variation, psychology and theory of knowledge. He identified 14 important elements, each of which would be a part of one or the other above 4 parts of SPK. The system of Profound Knowledge provides a concept of enabling the organizational and individual transformations needed. It also provides view to the present and the future of the world (Gruska, 2000). Henster et al, 2000 defines the philosophy of Deming as a glue that helps in bonding the principles for which the managers and the leaders are responsible. These initial researches done by Deming, Crosby and Juran set a basis for the fundamental principles of Total Quality Management implementation.
One of the award giving companies of the US, MBNQA uses 7-dimensional scheme for examining and assessing the quality programs of the company. The 7-dimensional scheme is more result oriented and focuses mainly on business results. In 1994 dean and Bowen through an extensive study on quality found in almost all the proposed frameworks till that time there were three important core principles which were inherited in all the frameworks and these were: continuous improvement, customer focus and teamwork.
Ahire, 1996, identified, evaluated, validated and tested around 12 constructs, which he found were an important element of total quality management, through an empirical study based on the survey conducted in manufacturing companies. The instrument used for the study was based on a thorough study of the concepts TQM from literature. He used comprehensive methods of refinement and validation and then used them to estimate the correlations.
Anderson et al, 1994, tried to study the 14 point concept of Deming through another method. He used Delphi method to analyse and find out the basic concepts lying in the 14 point construct of Deming. After taking inputs from the experts of this field he came up with 7 overall concepts. The factors identified by Anderson summarize the important factors implicitly or explicitly of the studies discussed above. The main drawback of their approach was that it suffered from lack of systematic scale of development and from the content validity.
In 1997, Zetiz et al devised a survey methodology in order to measure the total quality management and the organizational culture supporting those. To study this relationship between the TQM practices and thee organizational culture he used 13 important dimensions of TQM and 10 important dimensions of culture. A survey was then designed which consisted of around 113 questions in order to measure the level of TQM and culture as experienced by the members of an organization. The survey results were obtained from around 886 respondents and this were then analyzed. Through thee analysis he found that most of the scale variation was because of 7 TQM and 5 cultural dimensions.
Saraph et al, 1989 for the first time conducted a study which focused on validation of an instrument meant for the integrated quality management. The instrument for quality management developed by them has 78 items which was used to measure the degree to which some of the important technical concepts of quality systems are used in the companies. The 78-item instrument developed by them was built using the primary elements of the research done in the field by the gurus of quality like Deming, Crosby, Juran etc. Through the study they were able to find 8 different factors which are necessary for measuring the quality practices followed in any organization. A principal factor analysis was done to check the validity of each of the constructs. The main strength of the tool developed by them lie in the fact that it had high levels of external validity as the study was conducted on both the manufacturing as well as service industries. The main drawback of the developed tool was that it did not include two important constructs which were customer focus and SPC.
In 1996, Porter et al used Baldrige model in order to develop questionnaire which consisted of around 39 items. Using this, a survey was conducted among around 200 managers of European Foundation Quality Management. Similar tools of analysis ass used by Ahire were used and it was found that out the so many factors, some ten factors had an exceptional reliability and these factors were among those found in the previous studies.
Bowen et al, 1994 after doing extensive review of the large volume of literature on the quality concluded that in all the frameworks represented by different researcher’s three core principles are common and inherent in all of them. These three common principles are continuous improvement, customer focus and teamwork.
Flynn et al, 1994, did a similar study as that of Saraph et al 1989 with a difference that they focused mainly on the plant as a unit instead of an organisation in order to analysis and to utilize the perception of the managerial and line employees. It involved use of seven important dimensions of quality which were derived from the literature. The validation and refinement methodology was similar to that of Saraph et al. The strong point of research done by Flynn et al was that it included scales for team orientation like teamwork potential selection, customer interaction, organization and cleanliness. But the main drawback was that it did not include the employee benchmarking and empowerment scales.
2.3 ANALYSIS AND IDENTIFICATION OF PERFORMANCE MEASURES OF TOTAL QUALITYV MANAGEMENT
Different quality measures have been proposed by different authors, which can affect the business performance. Study by Deming in 1982 sowed that higher the quality less is the rework, higher is the productivity, lower the cost and increase in the market share. Garvin, 1988 proved the conformance of results of quality in lower productivity cost and lesser amount of rework and amount of scrap. The other model offered by him depicted on how the improvement in performance leads to higher reputation, high market prices and shares. In all the amount of rework involved, the total quality cost and the rate of defects in relation to the competitors are some important and common type of indicators which have been used by many researchers (Jacobsen et al, 1994) (Flynn et al, 1994) (Maani et al, 1994). Some of the important performance measures as reviewed from the literature are presented in this part:
2.3.1 Commitment from Top Management:
The support and the visibility offered from the top management is very crucial factor for the success of total quality management implementation (Deming, 1982). From the literature it can be found that there are 4 important ways in which the top management can do implementation of TQM. They are:
a. Allocation of resources and Budget
b. Control over activities through visibility
c. Monitoring the progress
d. Planning for the change
The important philosophy of managing the waste widely supported everywhere is inherent in these four components (Hardie, 1998). Provisions are needed to transfer the management support and control to the shop floor. Planning strategies are needed from the top management to reduce and modify the traditionally structured levels of operations and unnecessary positions. With the simplification of the organisation, it would establish an environment of integrated business functions which would participate as a team and would have supportive efforts for the vision of the company.
2.3.2. Quality Benchmarking and Measurement:
The company should involve plans for the strong maintenance and acceptance of total quality benchmarking and measurement. The programs for quality should focus on the measurement of percentage of the parts which have deviated from normal order of acceptance in order to prevent the occurrence of the same defects in future.
2.3.3 Process Management:
The main focus under this is on the addition of value to the processes involved and to increase the quality levels and the productivity rates per employee. The tactics involved to achieve this include: Improvements in the methods of work center and installation of processes controlled by operator, resulting into a lower cost per unit, embracing philosophies of continuous improvements, reduction in duties of handling of material by operator, making process flow to be compact etc (Kasul et al, 1995) (Hardie, 1998)
2.3.4 Product Design:
While planning for the design of the products organisations should take into consideration following factors: understanding the full requirements of the customer, emphasizing fitness of use, clear about the productability and specification, involvement of all the concerned departments in the design and frequent redesigns should be avoided (Sellenheim, 1991)
2.3.5 Empowerment and training of employees:
Employees form an important part of any firm and they should be fully aware and oriented towards the never ending commitment philosophy of company. They should be informed about the goals of the company, and should be made to feel that they are the part of the team. Training of employees should involve explanation of the overall quality specifications of the products and the quality operations of the company. (Porter et al, 1996)
2.3.6 Vendor Quality Management:
Most of the companies now support working closely with the vendors. The partnerships with vendors must be based on the programs of the quality and the documentation accepted from both sides on the continuous quality improvement. (Maskel, 1989)
2.3.7 Customer Involvement:
There should be provision of both internal services for customers as well as external assurance for them. Internal services should include providing dependable and timely deliveries, presenting cost saving or improvement suggestions etc. External assurance should involve quick and timely response to the complaints of the customers etc. (Kasul et al, 1995)
2.4 BACKGROUND OF KUWAIT
The Kuwait state is situated in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is surrounded by Saudi Arabia on its south and Iraq on its north. The economy of Kuwait is closely dependent upon the gas and oil resources. Kuwait is an oil exporting country for past many decades. It became the exporters of LNG as well and having the large oil and gas reserves, it is in race of becoming one of the major exporters by twenty first century. The revenue which comes from oil and gas exports is one the major source of national income for Kuwait and is considered among one of the major source of the state for foreign currencies. This is the reason for petroleum and oil sectors getting most of the projects and developments. The Kuwait economy is vulnerable to external factor changes in specific the prices of oil. The decline and the variation in the oil prices mainly during 1998 and 1999 forced the country to focus on the other non oil products in order to supplement national income.
In general, many radical changes are taking in the gulf countries producing oil which consists of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman etc and in this changing scenario Total Quality Management is considered to be a practical and ideal philosophy for bringing out the restructuring and necessary changes. Zairi in 1996 and Sharad et al, 1996 proposed Total Quality Management as a promising model for the oil companies of the Arab oil producing companies. Zairi, 1996 also showed many other benefits of implementation of TQM in these countries. The major quality change came with the ISO 9000 registration which had become passport for doing exports with European Union. As a result most of the oil producing organizations in Gulf regions are trying to seek the registration and trying to make the quality assurance levels to meet the needs of ISO 9000 standards. Zairi in 1996 through its research found that the managers in think that bringing ISO 9000 will lead to miracles and would result in superior competitiveness. He also stated that ISO 9000 is just a license and a pillar to the Total Quality Management Philosophy, it is very essential but it is not sufficient.
Although a lot of research and publications have been done for TQM, but a very little empirical work for developing countries have been carried out and for the case of Arab countries, especially that of Kuwait, it is very well true. From the very limited research carried out by the researchers like Sharad and Sulimani in 1994, Zairi et al in 1995, Aly in 1996, it has been found that Kuwait and the nearby regions are too far away from the maturity in case of practices of total quality management, the organizational climate and the culture required for the implementation of Total Quality Management. If the practices and systems are hostile to the teaching of TQM, then TQM cannot be effective in such environments. To tell where the Kuwait industries has to be is important, but along with that the other important thing is to first find out where the Kuwait industries are before going further. Therefore there is need of one such study and the present research is dedicated to that. The present study analyzes and evaluates current practices and knowledge of quality/TQM activities in Kuwait, in order to recognize the problems faced and to suggest a way forward.
