Guest editorial

Citation

Madhav Sinha, D. (2011), "Guest editorial", The TQM Journal, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm.2011.10623daa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: The TQM Journal, Volume 23, Issue 4

About the Guest Editor

Madhav Sinha is a major contributor to the theory and practice of quality control and total quality management (TQM) in Canada and known internationally as an expert and a pioneer in the field. He has a varied career experience of 45 years as research scientist, plant engineer, quality manager, university professor and government administrator. A prolific writer, Dr Sinha has authored, co-authored and edited ten books, including a textbook and over 50 research papers published internationally, some translated into foreign languages. He is the recipient of over 30 medals, honors, awards and testimonials for his outstanding contributions in the field of modern quality management, including the Distinguished Service Gold medal, the highest award accorded by American Society for Quality and its Grant medal (for leadership in developing quality educational programs), Edwards medal (for contributions in application of quality control methodologies), Lancaster medal (for work in the international fraternity of quality, the Leadership Award from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of Manitoba for his pioneering contributions in developing quality control sciences in engineering disciplines. He is listed in the International Who’s Who in Quality and International Who’s Who in Public Service as an outstanding Canadian making significant contributions to the economy and society’s well-being. Dr Sinha is an elected academician of the International Academy for Quality and the Founder President and CEO of Total Quality Research Foundation (TQRF) Canada Inc; a non-profit organization serving the knowledge-based industries.

The collection of papers in this special issue of The TQM Journal come from the presentations made at the Second Annual Canadian Quality Congress that was held, August 2010, on the campus of the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The event was organized once again by Total Quality Research Foundation (TQRF) Canada. The theme of the Congress was: “Quality and competitiveness for sustained performance”. Apart from five world-class keynote speakers, 42 highly qualified research papers were presented during the two-and-a-half day sessions. It was quite a rewarding experience to see the success of the second congress in Toronto.

The papers selected in this volume come from a wide variety of TQM research topics. It ranges from discussion on the lessons learned from ISO standards and how to use it to improve other standards; to the latest thinking on quality maturity models applicable to in knowledge-based industries, and a survey of student satisfaction to determine educational institution quality, to banking service quality trial and tribulations, to presentation of a new model for an integrated quality management systems, to revisiting the statistical process control ground rules for better design of experiments and a revisits to new economics of quality – all topics very good, all rigorously searching for better answers.

To begin with, a paper by Alan Gillies has excellent reasons to ask whether we have learned enough lessons from ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 to help improve the quality of information security management systems with ISO 27000. The author compares the barriers to adoption for different standards and proposes approaches based upon a maturity model to overcome these barriers. The principal contribution of the paper is a step-by-step framework designed to simplify the process for organizations working towards ISO 27001.

Roland Jochem and his team of researchers has developed a maturity model for SMEs to measure and assess the quality of business processes in order to enable the companies to determine their existing status and to take the necessary steps for the competence development. They assert that the methods of quality management, business process management and knowledge management have until now been exploited by science and the industry separately. An integration of these disciplines will unlock the potential of a solid structure to measure and improve knowledge transfer processes.

A third paper by Seema Arif and Maryam Ilyas investigates the leadership role of top administrators and faculty staff at the University of Central Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan to find out the gaps that exist leading to students’ dissatisfaction and their higher drop-out rates. The intent is to see how the university’s service delivery process impacts on student’s loyalty and image of the university in terms of quality. Mixed methods approach, surveys and interviews were used. Factorial analysis and SEM modeling was applied to analyze the data quantitatively whereas coding and interpretive analysis were used to handle qualitative data. The results show a strong correlation and authors pathways provide for improving leadership roles and management styles.

The purpose of Amit Kheradia’s paper is to combine systems thinking, lean management, value methodology and six sigma concepts altogether into one integrated quality methodology that he calls, the TALEVAS model. TALEVAS is put forward as an acronym for Tandem-Lean-Value-Sigma where each element correlates to a best practice or concept. Four key performance drivers are identified using the model: communication, investigative correction, innovation, and synchronization. The methodology, as claimed, could be deployed by any type of company (product or service based) or any size (small, medium or large) to gain a competitive advantage. The author argues that there is a possibility that recent cases of product recalls could be addressed through utilizing TALEVAS model.

Another paper by Manish Trehan and Vijay Kapoor focuses on the TQM journey of MilkFed, a major milk producing cooperative in the state of Punjab in Northern India. It aims to demonstrate how TQM principles has been used to create an organisation-wide environment of continuous improvement that has now spread into becoming a way of doing business in spite of numerous challenges. The paper demonstrates the use of Juran’s project-by-project approach and the basic 7 QC basic tools for building a culture of continuous quality improvement.

Statistical, technical and sociological dimensions of design of experiments are the issues taken up by Daniel Firka in another paper. The issues are enumerated and analyzed and their sources are presented with practical examples of Design of Experiments (DOE) case studies and considering published reports that confirm the statistical arguments and also show the critical steps needed during implementation of statistical quality control tools. The paper is of interest to DOE practitioners trying to understand potential pitfalls with tips on how to avoid the risk of failures.

The next paper by Hatice Camgoz Akdag and Mosad Zineldin investigates and defines the competitive positioning of banks including the state-owned, domestic and foreign banks operating in Istanbul, Turkey. The aim is to check the competitive marketplace positions and to identify the major quality attributes which bankers can use to determine their overall quality system determinants. A total of 1,530 questionnaires were submitted, answers collected and analyzed. Reliability test and frequency analysis were performed. The survey showed that customers of banks are not receiving what they expect. Use of an integrated technology, better staff training and streamlined operations are suggested as a result to improve banking service quality in addition to reengineering and redesign being prerequisite of designing banks’ new positioning strategy.

A last paper by Leonardo A. Sedevich Fons discusses the methods to quantify, in monetary terms, the effects of having a quality management system on company’s bottom line. The method proposed takes into consideration the traditional accounting procedure along with the quality cost measurements and balanced scorecard analysis and combines the two to devise a unique measurement system that can maximize benefits of the company from a holistic point of view of total quality.

Finally, I have my own few words of thanks and gratitude to mention. I must say that the start of Canadian Quality Congress has been an extraordinary project. As soon as the word got out, the news has been spreading and the feedback coming faster than expected. The reaction from friends and colleagues overseas have been astonishing, each in their own way, describing how exciting to see the great yearning in the eyes of Canadians hungry for knowledge building and dreaming to make quality a world language someday reaching out to hearts, mind and souls of global citizenry! It is so nice!

There are many people who deserve my heartfelt thanks and appreciation. I am grateful to the Total Quality Research Foundation (TQRF) board of directors, the members of National Advisory Council of the Canadian Quality Congress (CQC) and the Editorial and Technical Program Committee members who have shared their valuable time, talent, energy and ideas to enrich our collective knowledge by contributing to this endeavour. I also feel very lucky to have developed a very admirable and professional relationship with Ms Lucy Sootheran, the publisher of The TQM Journal along with her technical staff at Emerald Publishing Group, and Dr Alex Douglas, the editor of this journal, without whose continuing help and guidance it wouldn’t have been possible to finish the publication of this special issue.

Let me take this opportunity to welcome everyone to the 3rd Canadian Quality Congress taking place June 27-29, 2011 on the campus of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. I look forward to welcoming you all there!

Dr Madhav SinhaGuest Editor