| dc.description.abstract | Quality is widely recognized as one of the most important disciplines /strategies or
competitive priority for an organizational development. In this era of global
competition a company needs to apply quality methodologies in the form of strategic
quality management; quality systems: quality assurance; quality control, etc.In other
words, the organization has to implement the concept of quality management (QM).
This is because the QM principles support the business practices of cost reduction,
enhanced productivity and improved quality of products /outputs-i.e., it helps to
support and fulfill The concept of QM provides the approach to realize the
manufacturing strategy leading to fulfillment of corporate strategy. The principles and
contents of QM philosophy would increase a firm’s commitment to quality and if they
are applied correctly enhances the firm’s competitive position, hence the concept of
excellence in manufacturing.
The objective of the study was to establish the quality management practices used by
Sugar manufacturing companies in western Kenya and to determine the challenges
faced during implementation. The research methodology was based on a survey
approach for establishing quality management practices and challenges of
implementation by sugar manufacturing companies. Surveys are concerned with
describing, recording, analyzing and interpreting conditions that either exist or
existed. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire
was divided into two sections which were answered by the top level and the middle
level management.
The study found that the quality management practices that were practiced by the
sugar factories were top management commitment, organization for quality, employee
training/education, employee involvement, supplier quality management, customer
focus, quality system improvement and statistical quality techniques.
The study revealed the importance sugar manufacturing companies attach to quality
management improvements. The quality management practice that was largely
practiced was top management commitment indicating that top management is
actively involved in quality management and is providing clear and consistent
leadership. ; The second most practiced quality system improvement was organisation
for quality implying the companies’ culture is conducive to quality strategy
implementation and improvement. The third most practiced quality management
practice was statistical quality technique implying that quantitative methods and
statistical tools are used to provide workers and managers with the tools needed to
quantify variation, identify cause and find solutions to reduce or remove unwanted
variation and monitor progress objectively. The fourth most practiced quality
management practice was employee empowerment implying the employees are part
of the organizations decision making process and have a sense of family. Employees
take pride and ownership in their work which may lead to improvement in their job
performance and eventually increase organizational quality.
The second objective of the study investigated the challenges of implementation of
the quality management practices. The results indicate that there is good progress in
quality management practices implementation though some challenges do exist. | en |
