Theory Testing (Quantitative) Article

Impact of Quality Programs on supply Chain Performance

The purpose of this article is about the implication of the different types of quality programs such as ISO 9000, TQM, and Six Sigma, on the supply chain performance.

Since supply chain plays a crucial role in most companies, it is therefore very important to see what can help it to become more efficient. Supply chain is the backbone of the business with the control over purchases and allocations of raw materials, and the distribution of the finished product to the different sale channels. Without an efficient supply chain, the business will not survive.

The author of this article wants to show us that quality programs play a very important role in the improvement of the efficiency of supply chains. So, he came up with a model of research, which will go through different structures of a business affected by supply chain in order to see how the different quality programs affect them. He tested 72 firms in total, and the firms covered a wide variety of industries in order to be more representative. As said before, the authors will measure the performance of the quality programs. To reach his goals, we will create a strategic process to perform his analyses.

According to Dr. A Rajagopal, the studies will involve “four major activities involved in any value chain” (Global Management Review/volume 4/Issue3/May2010), and the hypotheses are:

 “Adaptation of different quality programs does not have any impact on :1. Customer orientation practices  2. Distribution practices  3. Internal operations or  4. Supply practices” (Global Management Review/volume 4/Issue3/May2010).

After reviewing the results of the surveys, the “null hypothesis is rejected based on the available sample evidence”(Global Management Review/volume 4/Issue3/May2010).

All the evidences showed that the quality programs affect positively the supply chains. Also, Dr. A Rajagopal mentioned that the implementations of the quality programs are not affected by size of the firms and neither by the scale of their activities (Global Management Review/volume 4/Issue3/May2010).

Since there is no doubt that implementing the quality programs on supply chains will be beneficial for all types of firms, managers and executives should consider the use of those programs to ameliorate their respective supply chain performances. An efficient supply chain will in return give the executives and managers a greater control of the firm resources in order to make their firms successful. 

References:

Dr. A. Rajagopal. Global Management Review/volume 4/Issue3/May2010