Impediments to the Adoption of Modern Quality Management Practices

Abstract

Reports on a survey relating to the ongoing search for understanding of impediments to the more comprehensive and more rapid adoption, by Australian manufacturing industry, of modern quality management practices. Of the 338 valid responses to the survey analysed, it appears that possibly only 10 per cent or less of the companies surveyed are “true” modern quality management practitioners. When extrapolated to manufacturing industry as a whole it is likely that the proportion of companies so qualified is much less than 10 per cent. Concludes that: Australian experience supports international evidence that those companies which implement modern quality management practices, in a comprehensive manner, achieve higher financial performance; the extent to which manufacturing companies in Australia have comprehensively implemented modern quality management practices is extremely limited (an estimated 2.5 per cent of 44.300 manufacturing companies would qualify in this respect); while no major impediments to the more extensive adoption of quality management practices have been identified through this survey, there are nevertheless likely to be some important barriers to progress. These probably include: the limited perceptions Australian manufacturing companies have of the processes required to achieve world best practices: the belief that they have effective quality management practices in place; the mistaken view that accreditation under Australian Standards for Quality Systems guarantees continuous improvement.