MOI UNIVERSITY

(NAIROBI CAMPUS)

NAME:EVERLYN JEMO MUZEMBI

REG NO:BBM/2085/18

COURSE TITLE :Total Quality in supply chain management

COURSE CODE :BBM 445

SUBMITTED TO:Mr Tonny Lukose

16th July 2021

Q1. Quality management systems (QMS) is usually envisaged as a wedge that holds the
gains
achieved along the quality journey and prevents good practices from slipping. Briefly
explain the benefits of having a QMS in small scale business (6 marks).

-A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on

consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction.It is expressed as
the organizational goals and aspirations, policies, processes, documented information and
resources needed to implement and maintain it.
BENEFITS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

1.Implementing the best practices and improving the business process.

-The corresponding quality can be reached via improving business processes used for
maintaining consistency, reducing expenditures, and ensuring production within the schedule
baseline. Processes and products are continually improved by implementing the best practices,
new techniques (including quality control), using project management, and other software.

2. A quality management system promotes a customer-led business.

-The information revolution, rapidly changing technologies, and lower barriers to entry have led
to an explosion of competitors - making it harder and more expensive to acquire new customers.
It's now even more important to retain customers.
However, retaining customers starts with understanding customer needs and satisfying them. A
business failing to satisfy customers simply will not survive. A quality management system plays
a central role in keeping the customer satisfied by specifying what your business needs to do to
meet deliver the products and services fit for purpose.

3. A quality management system improves company culture

-Quality has two distinct meanings. The first, and most important, is as a philosophy for the
whole business. It defines the primary goal of everyone in the organisation as meeting the needs
of customers.
The second meaning of quality is the set of processes, policies and procedures which constitute
operational planning and decision making.

4. A quality management system improves the bottom line.

An effective quality management system will encourage all employees to systematically address
risks and opportunities. This means that as needs of customers change, new technologies appear,
issues creep in, all employees naturally identify opportunities to eliminate waste and increase
profit.

5. Increased Profits.
Research has established that many organizations achieve a direct financial return on Quality
Management System implementation. An ISO literature review of 42 studies identified several
reasons QMS support profitability. Internal, external, and signaling benefits all collectively
contribute to stronger financial performance:
-Internal benefits such as increased efficiency and productivity lower costs
-External benefits such as increased sales or new market access impact income
-Signaling benefits include new market access or increased market share.

6. A quality management system helps you understand why things aren't going well.
-If your business experiences symptoms of decline, such as falling profitability, eroding market
share and deteriorating liquidity, the quality management system can help treat the cause.

Q2.Examine the various types of benchmarking that today’s organization should undertake
so as to remain competitive. ( 6 marks)

-Benchmarking is a way to measure business and team success by comparing a process or the
organization as a whole to other internal processes or to competitors. Benchmarking helps you
understand industry norms and analyze how your company stacks up. You can also compare a
process within one department to that of another to evaluate productivity or efficiency.
TYPES OF BENCHMARKING

1. Internal benchmarking.
-Internal benchmarking is pretty straightforward. You compare a process or task to a similar
process or task within the company.
This type of benchmarking is effective because it helps set and meet standards across the board,
establishing consistency and ensuring that each department is as efficient as possible.

2. External benchmarking.
-External benchmarking is comparing an internal process to that of a competitor or even several
other organizations. This approach can be a little trickier because it requires access to industry
data or specific company data, which may not be available unless the other organization has
agreed to share it with you.
External benchmarking is extremely valuable. You can better understand where your business
fits into the wider market and identify areas of weakness that you should be focusing on.

3. Competitive benchmarking.
Competitive benchmarking is a type of external benchmarking that solely focuses on comparing
your own processes and metrics to those of direct competitors. This form of benchmarking is
significant because you can identify exactly why a competitor is succeeding or what drives
customer satisfaction in your industry.

4. Performance benchmarking.
-Another important form of benchmarking is related to business performance. By tracking
metrics and KPIs within the business, teams can continue to compare past outcomes to current
standards, continuously updating the standard for improved performance.
This type of benchmarking is focused on improving key business functions over time, since the
idea is that benchmarks will continue to be raised and strengthened.

5. Strategic benchmarking.
Strategic benchmarking is typically external and specifically analyzes how other companies got
to be successful. What kind of business strategies do they employ? For example, what is
successful about their marketing campaigns?
Benchmarking the way you strategize can help you learn from what has worked for winning
businesses in and out of your industry. This is especially helpful for new businesses or startups.

6. Practice benchmarking.
This form of internal benchmarking relates to the practices and processes of your business. This
requires you to have procedures in place to gather and analyze business data, like how employees
and teams are completing their tasks or using certain technologies.
Process mapping is one way to start practice benchmarking, and you can quickly identify and
address any performance gaps in the company.

Q3.African countries view quality issues in organizations differently as compared to

Japanese, Americans and European nations. With Kenya as a case study, critically
analyze the milestone Kenya has made in quality management and discuss the challenges
to successful Total Quality Implementation in Kenyan firms today. (8 Marks).

-Total quality management (TQM) is the continual process of detecting and reducing or
eliminating errors in manufacturing, streamlining supply chain management, improving the
customer experience, and ensuring that employees are up to speed with training. Total quality
management aims to hold all parties involved in the production process accountable for the
overall quality of the final product or service.

CHALLENGES TO SUCCESSFUL TOTAL QUALITY IMPLEMENTATION

1.Constraints imposed by quality culture.
-The lack of genuine quality culture poses threats in terms of resistance to change as it is
reluctant to the accept the techniques that makes a variation in its present style of working.

2.Autocratic style of leadership.

-If autocratic style of leadership is adopted by the top management, it creates an environment of
fear. Because of which employees may not contribute their 1oo% which degrades their
productivity ultimately affecting the quality.

3.Lack of employee commitment.

- As employees are directly related with the production process, a lack of commitment on their
part can render the whole process of quality management useless.

4.Improper Channel of communication.

-For getting the lucrative results of the plans it is necessary that all the information flow in the;
i)Customers.
ii)Assessment.
iii)Customer Focus.
iv) Customer Focused.
v) Levels of TQM.
vi)Successful TQM Implementation.

5.Problems in identifying customer needs.

Companies often fail in identifying the needs of customers may be because of inaccurate data,
improper survey, and wrong interpretation of facts etc.This may result in supply of unwanted
product to the customer and hence defeat the main objective that is customer satisfaction.

6.Too much theory.

Organizations that are striving for perfection often go overboard. In an attempt to implement the
“perfect” Quality Management System, they often focus more on theory than on putting theory
into practice.

7. Too much documentation.

Many organizations create way too many documents; sometimes even to such an extent that the
documentation starts hindering the functioning of the Quality Management System. In such
cases, employees can get lost in the documentation and they may lose interest in the QMS. As a
result, the QMS will not yield the expected results.