Nagarajan Karthiyayini, C. Rajendran and Munusamy Kumaravel
The purpose of this paper is to formulate the strategy for improving the laboratory practices to enhance customer satisfaction by analyzing the performance of critical factors of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to formulate the strategy for improving the laboratory practices to enhance customer satisfaction by analyzing the performance of critical factors of IS/ISO/IEC 17025 (2005) laboratory accreditation and the importance attached by the quality/technical managers in the accredited Indian testing/calibration laboratories.
Design/methodology/approach
The perceptions of the critical factors of laboratory accreditation and the importance attached by the quality/technical managers in their organizations have been collected and analyzed to develop an importance-performance analysis (IPA) model to enhance the customer satisfaction.
Findings
Findings report that the performance of the critical factors and the importance assigned to them are not the same. There exist gaps between the performance and importance which need to be measured and analyzed by the management to strive toward continual improvement to enhance the customer satisfaction through the accredited testing and calibration services.
Research limitations/implications
This study is restricted to 54 responses out of 150 which were sent (i.e. about 36 percent response rate) to capture the perspectives of the quality/technical managers.
Practical implications
This study would enable the accredited laboratories to analyze the gap in performance and the importance assigned to critical factors through the feedback from the quality/technical managers. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses in the accredited testing/calibration laboratories, managerial decisions and strategic plans can be proposed to gain greater insights into benchmarking improvement of the laboratory quality management system with the existing resources to strive toward customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
This paper proposes IPA as a tool to assess the gap between the importance and performance of critical factors of accredited testing and calibration laboratories in India.
Details
Keywords
Nagarajan Karthiyayini and Chandrasekharan Rajendran
The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical factors (CRFs) of IS/ISO/IEC 17025:2005 laboratory accreditation and indicators of the performance (IOPs) in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical factors (CRFs) of IS/ISO/IEC 17025:2005 laboratory accreditation and indicators of the performance (IOPs) in the testing/calibration laboratories. The impact of accreditation on the performance is analyzed using the level of presence of critical factors that can be used to benchmark the best practices in the accredited testing and calibration laboratories.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire is designed on the basis of an extensive literature review on laboratory accreditation and performance. Based on the responses from pilot study, the developed instrument is tested for its unidimensionality, reliability and validity. Multiple regression analysis is carried out to analyze the impact of critical factors on the IOPs.
Findings
The findings reveal that the six distinct critical dimensions of laboratory accreditation (which are the independent variables) have a significant impact on the performance of the accredited testing/calibration laboratories. The performance is measured by the dependent variables which are the IOPs. The customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, laboratory performance, image of the laboratory, the number of increased customers and loyalty of the existing customers are highly influenced by the accreditation which in turn improves the performance to gain the competitive advantage.
Research limitations/implications
Contribution to research is in the area of laboratory accreditation and the performance measurement by the development of a comprehensive instrument to analyze the Laboratory Quality Management System. The results are dependent on the number of respondents who are the quality/technical managers.
Practical implications
This instrument would enable the accredited laboratories to analyze their performance through the feedback from the quality/technical managers to gain credibility and to continually improve and benchmark the quality management system in alignment with the quality policies.
Originality/value
This paper proposes an instrument to measure and benchmark the performance of the accredited testing and calibration laboratories.