Abstract

This research aims at investigating the causes for the decline of Business at Malawi Catering Services Limited (MCSL) using both primary and secondary data that were collected and analyzed to trace sources of the problems. Data was collected by means of questionnaires as well as face to face interviews. This research identified several areas which urgently need improvements using the Total Quality Management (TQM) conceptual framework. Some crucial areas of concern are Leadership & Management, Customer Satisfaction and Service delivery, as depicted by poor company performance and customer complaints, which have caused a decline in its business. Based on survey findings presented and discussed in this research, there were several conclusions and recommendations presented for MCSL to improve its performance. In developing these recommendations, special consideration was given to both short and long-term development plans and expectations of MCSL. The analysis of the results has shown that for effective implementation of TQM at Malawi Catering Services Limited through critical factors, there are areas that require improvements in good policies, performance assessment and efficiency. The above-mentioned problems of Leadership and management have exposed the incompetence of headship by not being able to enforce the implementation of Business plans that would assist to meet the company’s objectives. Most of TQM factors were rated very poor, that means customer care and service delivery is poor too. The study has revealed that the weakest factor for MCSL is Leadership and its entire Management who do not have visions that would motivate the employees for effective performance.

Key words: Total Quality Management (TQM); Leadership & Management; Customer Satisfaction and Service delivery

Abbreviations: MCSL: Malawi Catering Services Limited; TQM: Total Quality Management; ADL: Airport Development Limited

Research-Overview

Internal records of MCSL showed that there is a corporate decline at Malawi Catering Services Limited (MCSL) in profitability and service delivery of which one of causes could be failure to comply the Total Quality Management (TQM) principles and concepts. This research therefore involved an evaluation of the observed decline in performance for this business to identify problem areas. The evaluation also involved a literature search regarding TQM in a declining market environment. Research findings were used to suggest a possible turnaround strategy for MCSL.

Background to Study

TQM is not a new concept in business circles and has been a topic of research for many years. According to Padhi (2003) TQM is a management approach that originated in the 1950s and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980s. Stevenson [1] concurs with Padhi (2003) by noting that TQM is a business philosophy that embodies the belief that the management process must focus on integrating the ideas of customer driven quality throughout an organization. Deming [2] supports the above views by stating that TQM is continuously improving product quality and service delivery and is achieved through managers improving durability and enhancing product and service delivery. Many business commentators have said that TQM is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. In the Current operating environment, apart from very few employees, staff members do not know the mission statement, vision statement, objectives and policies of the organization. Organizations that have implemented TQM and are successfully enjoying organizational excellence present the company’s mission statement, objectives and policies and make them well known to every member of staff and this makes their goals to become congruent with the company. Therefore, employees will appreciate why certain things are done in a certain way, only when they know what goals they want to achieve and how. A two-way communication process will be vital where management clearly articulates and explains policies and objectives and employees are allowed to comment, criticize and offer some advice. The researchers and staff observed that MCSL Management has shown very little interest in keeping in touch with new technology for kitchen equipment since this requires heavy cash outlay. Some equipment is outdated and hence maintenance support is problematic due to unavailability of spare parts. The company must realize that investment in new technology can lead to increased productivity, elimination of down time, low staff costs and better morale. Eventually profitability and cash flow will improve, and the business will have better growth prospects be able to plough back the profit for further investment and pay the dividends to shareholders. The kitchen staff and the rest of the staff have not been trained in the past 15 years. One senior Health advisor on human resource in the ministry of Health once said, “you must invest in employees, if you don’t, then you must calculate the cost of not investing in employees”.

Continuous training goes hand in hand with continuous improvement in both process and product/service delivery. With the current ever-changing technology, growing competition from around the world and continuous customer expectation, MCSL needs to quickly move fast to catch up with pace. In fact, training must be in all departments to keep them up to date with latest developments in their respective departments. As the company operates several outside catering units, MCSL management has rarely held meetings with outlets supervisors to appraise the outlets’ performance in both quantitative as well as qualitative factors. Therefore, MCSL top management is not closer to supervisors who are part of internal customers. The only formal meeting that takes place is senior management and board meetings. The set up is somehow more confusing as managers of Airport Development Limited (ADL) act both as regulators and at the same time as senior managers of MCSL. Over time the company should be able to create a conducive environment that can help to sort out the hierarchy of the positions so that the MCSL management may be able to make competent decisions, be it at Boards or management level. Companies that have excelled have been associated with good systems in terms of good governance, updates on customer’s profile, signed trading conditions, good suppliers, good customer relationships, good delivery system of both invoices and statements payments, excellent archiving among others. These attributes will place MCSL among well-organized companies that will serve its customers better, reduce its debts and improve its cash flow which can in turn benefit all stakeholders. Majority of staff at MCSL are illiterate and rely on manual intervention to carry out most of their work. Communication is mostly done through faxes rather than email. MCSL needs to encourage its staff to learn how to continuously use computers as this will make most of their jobs easy and they can continuously gain product knowledge which can benefit them and benefit the final customer.

In the in-flight catering business where competition looks small, there is little that can be done to improve how things are done and even no effort to know what and how other competitors are doing their business. TQM advocates benchmarking as one way of assessing oneself to know whether the business is on track or not. Regardless of how small the competition is, management needs to continuously do research and improve whether it can as entrants in market from new business ventures either of perfect substitutes or similar substitutes cannot be ruled out at any point of time. At MCSL, it is observed by employees that there seems to be a lack of coordination between departments evidenced from missing documents and poor ordering by the purchasing department. Total organization excellence practice strongly recommends that each department should treat each other as customers or suppliers. In this way each employee looks at his/her actions and matches them to work on the next process in the chain and it is this customer mentality that will lead to improvement in the way things are perceived and done.

The Malawi Catering Services Limited (Mcsl)

MCSL, a subsidiary of Airport Development Limited (ADL), operates at Kamuzu International Airport as in-flight caterers and was incorporated under parliament act in 1983. The mission statement of MCSL is “to provide quality catering and in-flight services to the widest range of customers in a financially sustainable and responsible manner”. But the mandate of the company is very wide. Some of the mandates are to sell beverages and liquor and runs restaurants. Such outlets are as follows: Tilipano leisure center, Bars and restaurants at the terminal building. In addition, the company also provides catering services to the central bank (Reserve bank of Malawi). Currently the company has competitive advantages over other service providers as it is the only company with a well-established flight kitchen at Lilongwe International Airport. The company has 182 employees altogether. It has two top Managers, nine at middle management level, twelve Supervisors, twenty clerical staff and several junior employees, among others. The vision for MCSL is “to be the leading catering institution in Malawi and in the whole SADC/COMESA region”. However, the above mission and vision statements are not shared with employees as they are not displayed at strategic positions in all sales outlets and offices. There seems to be a problem in attaining shared values from the employees which is one of the areas of TQM advocates. This research is therefore designed to look into how seriously to address the afore-mentioned problems affecting the organization’s performance and recommend management a turnaround strategy so that MCSL regains its long-term market share for the in-flight catering business.

Research Problem

At MCSL major flaws have been noticed in areas that deal with TQM. It is within this context that formal research had to be carried out. MCSL has been operating for the past 25 years in the catering business with the competence and qualification of supervisors always questionable. However, in recent times MCSL is experiencing cash flow problems. These problems affect the supply chain management resulting in suppliers being paid very late. With such scenario some suppliers are reluctant to supply goods and services to the company on credit and opt for cash transactions and this has resulted in a corporate decline in profitability and services delivery.

Research Objectives

The author is carrying out this research with a key research objective that will drive the evaluation with respect to the following research objective:

• To critically review the performance of MCSL in light of the key factors of effective TQM principles.

Research Questions

The study will be designed to answer the following research questions that will provide the focus of the investigation:

1. Does MCSL apply the effective principles of TQM such as Good Leadership, and Customer Care Services?

2. Has MCSL managed to satisfy customers through TQM principles?

3. How can MCSL improve its operations based on TQM principles?

Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is reflected in the thinking that Total Quality Management rests at the heart of all operations in any organization. Therefore, studying is important for two reasons. Firstly, it is designed to find out to what extent MCSL has applied the helpful principles of TQM so that ways of improving and strengthening the operations could be suggested with a view to improving profitability and services delivery. Secondly, the study will seek to broaden stakeholders’ understanding of key TQM principles to provide a basis for comparison and benchmarking.

The TQM Business Philosophy Framework

Source: Chase et al (2004)

The (Figure 1) above outlines the framework of TQM business philosophy which should be used in organizations. Chasel et al (2004) outlines the framework of activities as follows:

Top Management: All the three “Qurus” Deming [2], Juran (1989) and Crosby (1985) agree that top management is responsible for quality problems and involved in and committed to quality

Employee Involvement: In a TQM environment, top management must provide direction for improvement to occur, including training in problem solving and decision make techniques. The workforce must be encouraged to become involved and convinced that its contribution will be recognized and rewarded.

Continuous Improvement: From an organizational perspective, TQM must establish and maintain procedures that lead to systematic and continuous improvement in capability, reliability and efficiency of business processes.

Problem Solving Tools: For the TQM process to begin, changes must occur. The responsibility for all these changes rests with management. Deming has suggested that the organization must first develop goals that match or exceed customers’ satisfaction. The total participation of the entire organization must exist, and the workforce must be trained and empowered to carry out its tasks. An environment without fear and higher pointing must be created and a global, rather than a local, perspective must be given (Muhlemen 1992).

Meeting the needs and expectations of customers: In this TQM business philosophy, the organization through TQM puts the customer at the front of managerial decision-making. It requires that the implications for the customer are considered at all stages in corporate decision making and that decisions are made and systems created will not detract from customers’ experience. According to Rao Tummala and Tang (1999), accomplishing the quality and performance goals of the organization requires that process management be based solidly on reliable information, data and analysis. Operations and decisions need to be based on information about performance indications, projections and trend analysis. These indicators should reflect the characteristics of products, services, processes and operations the company uses to evaluate performance and track progress on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and companies’ operation results. The information systems must be fined-tuned so that they support these activities as well as survey-feedback action systems should be in place. Van de Wiele and Dale et al, (1993) had an extensive survey conducted in England (UK) and the Netherlands, found out that satisfying external customer is the most important aspect of TQM. Therefore, in organization quality plans, we should incorporate customer satisfaction, company operation performance results, such as cycle time, on time delivery, reliability, employee satisfaction and return on assets. Wiele and Dale et al (1993) found out that satisfying external customer, cost reduction, partnership between the organization and its customers, each person satisfying internal customer (employee), employee involvement, and development, teamwork, and improving process capability. Therefore, to achieve the above, each person must be dedicated to continuous process improvement.

Organization of the Thesis

Chapter one introduces the research and the research problem being investigated with a highlight of the knowledge gap that research expects to fill. Chapter two presents the literature review. Insights by experts that have written on topics related to the research questions and problems are outlined and reviewed in this chapter. Details of the methodology adopted for this research are presented in chapter three. This includes research philosophy and approach, sampling methods and requirements for this research. Chapter four outlines the research findings and their analysis. Research conclusions and recommendations are presented in chapter five.

Chapter Summary

This introductory chapter has given a brief background to TQM. It has also presented the objectives that the study sought to achieve, the research questions to be investigated, the purpose and significance of the study. The next chapter is a theoretical outline of what different authors articulate about effective principles in TQM.

Literature Review

Introduction

There is a wide range of both theoretical and empirical literature on Total quality management reforms for profitability and service delivery processes. Generally, most of the literature presents how TQM affects business productivity. In this chapter, both theoretical and empirical literature review analysis on TQM is presented what follows TQM concepts, supply chain management, customer focus & satisfaction, Leadership, Benchmarking and TQM implementation form the bedrock of theoretical framework.

Total Quality Management Concepts

According to Long Bottom (2004) TQM has been a driving philosophy for many organizations in striving for business excellence and long-term sustainability and competitive advantage. Bounds et al (1994) stated that TQM is often used to refer to any collection of changes in techniques and programs that managers choose to institute in the name of improvement. According to Rampey et al (1992) define TQM as “a people focused management system that aims at continual increase in customer satisfaction at continually lower real cost. TQM is a total system approach and an integral part of high-level strategy. It works horizontally across functions and departments, involving all employees, top to bottom and extends backwards and forwards to include the supply chain and customer chain. To a certain extent, Total Quality Management conveys the idea that everyone and all levels of an organization strive to attain quality, a scenario which depicts an acceptable coincidence of top-down and bottom-up approach. In fact, different authors that have written on this topic give different definitions of TQM. For example, Kartha (2004) defines TQM and cited by long bottom (2004) as “a systems approach to management that aims to enhance value to customers by designing and continually improving organizational processes and systems. It provides a new vision for management leadership. It places customers as a principle focal point and redefines quality as customers through employee involvement and empowerment. TQM relies on fact-based decision making. This definition therefore takes TQM in a wider perspective with reference to processes and systems that cover the whole organization as opposed to viewing separate departments, products or services independent of the other.

According to Guta (2003) argue that few of these adhere to acknowledge criteria of definitions, leaving TQM terms rather ubiquitously used, yet not university understood. This can be appreciated in most literature different authors have defined TQM in different ways. According to chase et al (2004: 274) TQM is the managing of the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer. TQM has also been defined as a management philosophy, aimed at continuous improvement in quality standards (Cole 1996). Peters (1999) agrees with Deming (1996) in defining TQM as programs that look at the following issues, TQM looks at the whole organization output and seeks to optimize their efficiency and effectiveness. It looks at the whole organization system design and operations. It also links different departments in an organization as internal customers to each other with the aim of satisfying the external customers. The notion of TQM was introduced by Feigenbaum in 1957 (Slack et al 1996). More recently, it has been developed through several widely recognized approaches put forward by several ‘quality gurus’ such as Deming, Ouch, Juran, Ishikawa and Crosby. Deming (1982) [2] is credited with the development of TQM in Japan. He took the view that as process variability (the amount of unpredictability in process) decreases, quality and productivity increase. His principles for quality improvement stressed the need for statistical control methods of participation, education openness and improvement. William Ouch, another Japanese theorist, in early 1980s devised theory Z which combined (aspects of US management practice which he referred to as theory A) and Japanese management practices (theory J.) William Ouchi emphasized that TQM should involve inter skills, group interaction and decision making, participative management, free flow of information, trust, retention of hierarchical and control and formal procedures for planning and setting objectives

Juran, also known as Duran (1988), argued that quality should not be seen in terms of meeting specification, but should focus on the role of the customer, both internal and external. Juran emphasized the importance of management’s role in quality improvement and the need to motivate the work force and involve them in quality improvement initiatives. He also emphasized that quality management should aim to ensure the way in which work is performed to facilitate high quality output. Ishikawa (1985) stressed the importance of people and participation in the process of solving quality problems. He devised the idea of quality circles to achieve participation and overcome resistance and the rigid specification of standards. Crosby (1979) is best known for his work on the cost of quality. He suggested that many organizations do not know how much they spend on quality, either in putting it right or getting it wrong. He claimed that organizations that have measured their costs say that they equate them to about 30% of sales. Crosby tries to highlight the costs and benefits of implementing quality programs through his book” quality is free” in which he provided a zero defects program which he believed would reduce the total cost of quality (Johnston et al 2001:763). TQM is therefore an amalgamation of related but different ideas and benefits of implementing. TQM, therefore, can be viewed as a logical extension of the way in which quality related practice has progressed. From the foregoing discussion it shows that TQM is the continuous improvement in quality, productivity and effectiveness’ obtained by establishing management responsibility for processes as well as output. On the face of it would appear that the quality ‘gurus’ provide different solutions to bring about improvement in organizations. However, it has been suggested that they are all talking in the same “language” but use different dialects.

Knowing that organizational systems and processes are linked, it is obvious that any break in that dependency will affect the outcome from one process to the other with consequent failure to meet the customers’ demand in many ways like customer care. Therefore, companies that do not position themselves in continuous process improvement to meet the ever-changing customer requirements will withdraw from the game and their market share will be taken up by visionary and innovative competitors. This implies that for a company that operates as a unit, it only makes sense to get the involvement and commitment of everyone in the organization as a means of achieving continuous improvement in all the process. Therefore, quality is a process that must be managed and improved. TQM therefore is a foundation of activities that include meeting customers’ requirements, improving systems, training, and improvement of management teams, reducing product and service costs and doing things in time. Therefore, customer satisfaction is a prime goal of total quality management implementation.

The Elements of TQM

According to Duran (1988) aspects of TQM include getting things right first time, preventing defective production or service delivery and meeting the needs and expectations of customers or clients. Thus, TQM often involves the notion of internal and external customers linked in quality chains.

Internal Customers and Internal Suppliers

Many business commentators have argued that in a TQM approach, all parts of the organization are involved in quality issues and working together. This means that every person and every activity in the organization affects the work done by others. From the foregoing explanation it shows that TQM promotes the concept of the internal customer and internal supplier. Thus, the work done by an internal supplier for internal customers will eventually affect the quality of the product or service to the external customer.

Service level agreements

Some organizations formalize the internal supplier - internal customer concepts by requiring each internal supplier to make a service level agreement with its internal customer (Nigel et al 2000). Harrison (2002) concurs with Nigel’s (2000) views by stating that a service level agreement is a statement of the standard of service and supply that will be provided to the internal customer and covers issues such as the range of service supplied, response times, and dependability. However, however have been criticized, however, for over – formalizing the relationship between the internal supplier and internal customer, thus creating barriers to the development of a constructive relationship and genuine co-operation between them.

Quality culture within TQM

Literature shows that a purely procedures driven approach is unlikely to secure a culture of quality. Interpersonal factors such as employee empowerment, teamwork and commitment are likely to be important considerations (Johnston 1998). This means that every person within an organization has an impact on quality, and it is the responsibility of everyone to get quality right. Harland (2000) argues that individuals should be encouraged not just to avoid mistakes and to comply with established performance standards and procedures. Stuart (2002) supports Harland (2000) arguments by mentioning that individuals must also do something positive to improve their performance and to help improve the performance of others. On the other hand many writers say that team working skills are key competence required of modern management. This shows that employees are individuals with individual strengths and weaknesses. They need to work together to optimize their personal attributes for the collective benefit of the company. Allied to the notion of greater empowerment is the idea of self – managed or semi – autonomous teams. According to Chambers (1989) customers can therefore relate to a team of employees who are opposed to making decisions in meeting their needs without the distraction of having to obtain authorization from their superiors. Robert (1996) mentions that commitment is also important in achieving quality as this will require management to apply their skills in persuading and motivating staff to a true commitment to quality. Ultimately it is the employees who are to deliver the quality.

Empowerment

Duran (1988) observes that TQM includes a certain number of procedures, but to be effective it also requires employee participation, empowerment and teamwork. Thus, empowerment recognizes that employees themselves are often the best source of information about how to improve quality. Robert (1996) supports the above views when he notes that empowerment can be important in-service organizations where formal procedures might hamper the flexibility of employees responding quickly to customers’ needs. This means that incidence of service personnel telling customers that other requests cannot be because of company policy or procedures are likely to lead to displeased customers.

Continuous improvement

Many writers on TQM say that quality management is not a one – off process but is the continuous examination and improvement of existing processes. TQM therefore looks for uninterrupted, ongoing incremental change. In other words, there is always room for improvement and continuously trying to become better. According to Rao Tummala and Tang (1996) continuous improvements is the cornerstone and require well designed and well executed management of all systems and processes. Do it right today and better tomorrow should be guiding principle. According to Deming and Juran, the baseline for continuous improvement is the control of processes and the reduction of waste and variation. Juran has identified the sporadic vs. chronicle waste related to the systems and processes which are used to produce products and found that 85% of the problems are due to chronicle waste and only 15% are due to sporadic waste (Neave 1990). Deming later revised these numbers to 94% for common causes and 6% for special causes. Deming prefers to call them special vs. chronicle waste (Neave 1990). Both must be responsible to implementing necessary actions in constantly improving the quality due to common causes.

In the modern world where competition is inevitable, it has become common that those companies that are not continually improving their processes have either become outdated or cannot meet customer’s delivery timer due to longer process times and this has resulted in reduced market share. Cane (1996), continuous improvement commonly known as “Kaizen” which is a Japanese name for improvement is a philosophy that encourages employees to continuously set higher standards of performance and achieve new goals in satisfying customer needs. For such improvements to be achieved there is a need for top management to be committed to supporting the TQM programmes through provision of adequate training and resources. Firms are now focusing on eliminating all non-value adding activities to continuously improve total business performance (Heyland et al., 2000). Oakland (1999) stresses that continuous improvement involves planning, providing inputs, evaluating output, examining performance and modifying process and their inputs to achieve better results. There are three basic principles of continuous improvement: customer focus, involving people and understanding the processes. All processes must work towards satisfying the customer with full knowledge that customer needs are dynamic and therefore need for continuous Improvement. TQM recognizes that when a product or service is produced or provided there could be a variation from the desired output hence need for continuous improvement based on reduction in variance (Deming, W.E.1996).

Performance Objectives: Customer’s Viewpoints

Cox [3] argues that most operations buy a wide variety of hospitality services and typically the volume and value of these hospitality services are increasing as organizations concentrate on their core tasks. Most writers in the field of operations have further argued that in the variety of hospitality services a firm provides, there are some underlying objectives which are true for all hospitality jobs supplied. According to Aaker [4], these have been termed the five performance objectives. These performance objectives: quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and lowest cost are significant to the success of the hospitality industry as noted by different writers below.

Quality

Among dominant issues, if not the dominant issue in the TQM literature is the attribute of quality. Service quality is a field of study. Buswell (1986) argues that right quality of goods and services will have a significant effect on whether the operation itself can provide a quality advantage. For example, quality failures of TQM will also increase costs. Cole [5] affirms the above arguments by stating that self-certification is based on a level of trust and confidence which has come about partly because those that are involved in the hospitality industry have invested time, money and effort into helping their suppliers reach the required quality levels. This effort has often been made through investment in supplier quality assurance programmes. Five issues have been established as constituting the criteria by buyers to evaluate service quality. These are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The five criteria have varying ease of measurement. “Tangibles” for example, by Berry et al (1990) are more easily measured since they concern “the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communications materials.” In contrast “empathy” is much “softer” as it does “the provision of caring individual attention to buyers.” Responsiveness relates to the speed with which the service provider responds to buyer request and assurance points to “providing evidence or confirmation of service quality.” The author found that reliability is the most important dimension in meeting, rather than surpassing buyer expectations. This supports the findings by Ngulira (2005) that for satisfaction to occur, technical quality is more important, provided that the technical quality reaches a satisfactory level. From the above discussion, it is apparent that reliability is mainly concerned with the outcome of service whereas tangibles, responsiveness, assurance and empathy are concerned with service delivery process. This entails that buyers do not only judge the accuracy and dependability of delivered service, but also the other dimensions as the service is being delivered.

Speed

The importance of this fact is realized where customers and other stakeholders rightly blame the organization if a company fails to deliver on time. Lash (1990) states that procurement has to take the leading role of convincing hospitality industries to deliver services on time. Doyle (2002) [] argues that the main benefit to the customers of speedy delivery of goods and services lies in the way it enhances the operations offered to the customer. Quite simply, for most goods and services the faster a customer can have the product or service, the more likely he or she is to buy it. According to Charan and Tichy (1999) inside the TQM speed is important as fast responses to external customers is greatly helped by speedy decision making and speedy movement of materials and information.

Dependability

Spencer (2002) defines dependability as doing things at one time for customers to receive their goods or services when they were promised. Thus, customers might judge the dependability of an operation after the product or service has been delivered. Initially this will not affect the likelihood that customers will select the service – they have already consumed it. Over time, however, dependability can override all other criteria. Doyle [6] says that hospitality dependability has a similar effect. Internal customers will judge each other’s performance party by how reliable the other micro-operations are in delivering material or information on time. Therefore, this means that operations where internal dependability is high are more effective than those which are not for several reasons.

Flexibility

Flexibility means being able to change the operation someway. This may mean changing what the operation does, how it is doing it, or when it is doing it. Rigby (2002) mentions that product or service flexibility is that operation’s ability to introduce new products and services. Thus, inside operation flexibility can also have advantages to the internal customers within the hospitality operation. For example, being able to give fast service often depends on the operation being flexible.

Cost

To companies that compete directly on price, cost is clearly their major objective. Thus, the lower the cost of producing goods and services, the lower the price can be for the customers. Even those companies which compete on things other than price, however, will be interested in keeping their costs low. Cole [5] states that the ways in which cost can be influenced will depend largely on where the costs are incurred. Thus, simply put the catering firms will spend their money on staff costs, facilities, technology and equipment costs and material costs.

Supply Chain Management

A supply chain is the sequence of organizations, their facilities, functions and activities that are involved in producing and delivering a product or a service, (Stevenson 2005). Supply chains sometimes are referred to as value chain, a term that reflects the concept that value is added as goods and services progress through the chain. Business commentators say that no total quality process is complete if it does not address the issues related to the process of managing suppliers (Elshennawy et al 1991). This notion stems from the quality management philosophy of “prevention rather than detection”. TQM organizations aim for “design and purchase” quality rather than “inspecting” quality to produce services and products that meet customer’s requirements. According to Gilmore (1992) TQM organizations tend to manage and control their supply chain better by pursuing approaches such as suppliers’ base reduction, limited arrangement, sourcing arrangement, and closer integration. Easton (1993), many Baldridge applicants have set up extensive quality programmes with suppliers. These include supplier quality programmes with their suppliers. These include supplier quality systems audit, supplier rating and qualification systems, training, joint design teams, joint quality improvement teams, and supplier recognition schemes. In this way they ensure that the quality movement spreads gradually throughout their supplier chain (Crosby, 1989). They offer partnerships and extend as much assistance as possible to suppliers and help them manage quality effectively. Good examples are, Florida power and Light company provide a two-week training course for its suppliers on how to implement a total quality management initiative in their own company, while Wallace company has provided over 100 of its suppliers with training on TQM (Johnson and Daniel,1991). As a vital preventative measure against non-conformance of incoming materials, TQ organizations also undertake supplier evaluation (Newman, 1988). As a key criterion, they select suppliers based on their capability and commitment to product and service quality. An evaluation may be performed by analyzing the supplier’s history or audits such as on-site assessments or interviews. One of the key factors in ICL product Distribution UK’s success in getting its suppliers right is its supplier evaluation programme (Binney, 1992). Rover and Ford in UK also have similar programmes (Gilroy, 1992).

The Need of Supply Chain Management

According to Stevenson (2005) the need of supply chain management is to improve operations, increase the level of outsourcing, decrease the transportation cost. Stevenson (2005) noted that supply chain management offers numerous benefits. For example, it doubles its inventory turnover, it doubles profits and increases sales and it also increases market share. Quality Gurus such as Crosby (1989), Deming (1986), Ishikawa (19985) and Peters (1989), preach about the need for suppliers to be viewed as an integral part of organization’s operations. Crosby (1989) says that the relationship between supplier and buyer is one of the most important parts of quality improvement process. Total quality organizations tend to manage and control their supply chain better (Hirsch horn and Gilmore, 1992) by pursuing approaches such as supplier base reduction, limited sourcing arrangement, and closer integration and strategic alliance with suppliers. A good example is the Japanese ministry of international Trade and Industry, the Japanese Manufacturing industry owes its competitive advantages and strengths to its supplier’s relationship structures (Dyer and Ouchi, 1993).

The Japanese auto makers have elaborated supplier relationship programmes. Toyota and Nissan have large supplier’s assistance management consulting group with specialized expertise that work full time – “free of charge” – with suppliers. They help suppliers to improve their production techniques and achieve total quality in products and services. All organizations, regardless of where they are in the chain, must deal with the supply and demand issues (Stevenson 2005). To my understanding the goal of supply chain management is to link all components of the supply chain so that market demand is met as efficiently as possible across the entire chain. According to Stevenson (2005) most organizations did little to manage their supply chains. Instead, they tend to concentrate on their own operations and on their immediate suppliers. However Stevenson (2005) says there are several factors which makes it desirable for business organizations to actively manage their supply chains. During the last decade, many organizations adopted practices such as lean production and Total quality management. As a result, they were able to achieve improved quality while wringing much of the excess costs out of the systems. Furthermore Stevenson (2005) noted that there is still room for improvement, for many organizations, major gains have been realized. In this case, as the scenario above, opportunity now lies largely with procurement, distribution, and logistics of the supply chain.

Stevenson (2005) noted that the level of outsourcing is on the increase. Most organizations are increasing their levels of outsourcing, buying goods or services instead of producing or providing themselves. He further said that as outsourcing is on the increase, organizations are spending increasing amounts on supply related activities such as (wrapping, packaging, moving, loading and unloading, then finally sorting. It has been noted that spending on these and related activities is becoming a burden and unnecessary so far. Competitive pressures have led to an increasing number of products, shorter product development cycles, and increased demand for customization. Stevenson (2005) stated that in most industries, most notably consumer electronics, product life cycles are relatively short, and added to this is adoption of quick-response strategies and efforts to reduce lead times. Increasing globalization has expanded the physical length of supply chain (Stevenson 2005). A global supply chain increases the challenges of managing a supply chain. Having far-flung customers, or suppliers, means longer lead times, and greater opportunities for disruption of deliveries. The increasing importance of e-commerce has added new dimensions to business buying and selling and has presented new challenges (Stevenson 2005). According to Stevenson (2005) effective supply chain management offers numerous benefits. For example, Campbell soup doubled its turnover rate, Hewlett-Packard cut DeskJet printer supply costs by 75%, Sport Obermeyer doubled profits and increased sales by 60 percent in two years, and National Bicycle increased its market share from 5% to 29%. Effective supply chain management helped Wal-mart become the largest and most profitable retailer in the world.

Customer Focus and Satisfaction

The important goal of TQM is appreciating and satisfying customer needs. Understanding, satisfying and surpassing customer needs and expectations on a continuous basis should be the key to TQM. The needs and expectations of customers must be a priority for all employees. Mann (1999) argues that organizations should consider what is achievable in relation to the satisfaction of its external customers. Thus, those organizations that continuously assess its customers’ needs and satisfy them are the ones claim big market share. Therefore, it is important to set proper and reliable systems in place in order to ensure that customer needs are known and satisfied forthwith. Man et al., (1999) argues that organizations should consider what is achieving in relation to the satisfaction of its external customers. Examples of best practice in customer satisfaction are as follows; assessing customer perception directly using techniques such as customer surveys, assessing customer perceptions indirectly by observing internal measures such as customer complaints, response time, rework, repeat business and market share. Working with customers and understanding their needs can be achieved through regular visits to customers, frequent courtesy phone calls and establishing one-to-one customer relationships. The application of customer care techniques throughout the organization, such as customer contacts points, should be trained. Those that would require training include receptionist, switch board operators, gatemen, marketing specialists, sales personnel and senior management.

Leadership

Zeffane (1996) mentioned that actions and behavior by management sends a stronger message to the entire workforce. The great thing about best practice, management, is that it gives the General Manager all that is needed to run the business. The commitment of senior managers is to lead the change process by giving an understanding of why the change needs to take place. Everybody in an organization need to be convinced that what is being proposed is workable and beneficial to internal but more importantly to the external customers. Hamzah et al (1996) argue that leaders must be trained to identify the people performing well. Recognition and appreciation must be utilized as tools in motivating people to effectively participate in the programmes. Hamzah et al (1996) noted that effective leadership should include adequate and appropriate management structures to help in effective and efficient implementation of TQM. According to literature research conducted by the researcher, what comes out clearly is that everything starts with committed and passionate leaders of the organization. Stevenson Stanton (1996) in watts concurs with the researcher. According to Thiagarajan (1997), the critical role of top management and their leadership in quality Management is emphasized over and over in literature covering implementation of case studies and writings of quality gurus. All senior Managers must create clear and visible quality values and high expectation and build them into the way the organization operates. Managers require their personal commitments and involvement in substantial proportions. According to Juran (1991) all quality Gurus have not only emphasized this core concept but also demanded that senior managers demonstrate the leadership role they play in creating and communicating quality values and expectations and establishing the quality culture in their organizations in achieving the quality excellence. As Juran (1996) pointed out, stunning results cannot be achieved without the active and personal leadership of senior Managers. Rao et al (1996) observes that improvement is the cornerstone of TQM and requires well designed and well executed management of all systems and processes. According to Steven Stanton in watts (1996) noted that everything starts with a committed and passionate leader of business organization, a leader who is really committed to making fundamental changes, without that very little else is possible. First and foremost, in the quality evolution process senior management must start by understanding what TQM really means (Smith, 2000). They must be convinced of its benefits to the organization and acknowledge the fundamental change it will bring in the running of the organization. It is critical that they build the requisite commitment before getting the rest of staff involved. There must be consensus among them regarding what the organization needs to achieve its quality goals. It goes without saying that all quality gurus have not only emphasized this core concept but also demanded that senior managers demonstrate the leadership role they play in creating and communicating quality values and expectations and establishing the quality culture in their organizations in achieving the quality excellence. As Juran (1991) pointed out that the stunning results cannot be achieved without the active and personal leadership of senior management.

Benchmarking

According to Bank [7] Benchmarking is an integral part of a total quality process. Bank [7] noted that the primary objective of benchmarking is performance improvement. Zaire (1994) concurs with Bank [7] that identifying opportunities for performance improvement by comparing one organization’s performance with another is a reflex of TQM. Zaire (1996) points out that TQM is the wheel of improvement and doing an internal value-adding activity for the end customer. Benchmarking is the external activity for identifying opportunities and ensuring that the wheel of improvement is turning in the right direction and is making the necessary effort towards the end destination i.e. achieving a high standard of competitiveness. Many best organizations are using benchmarking as tools for obtaining information to be used in continuous improvement process and to gain competitive edge Smith (1994), Zaire (1994) suggests that there are four types of benchmarking. Firstly, Competitive benchmarking – comparisons with primary competitors. Secondly, functional benchmarking that depicts comparisons with similar functions or processes within the same broad industry leaders as partners. Thirdly generic benchmarking that compares with similar functions or process regardless of type of industry. Lastly, internal benchmarking- involves comparison within the setup of the corporation, for example between sister organizations or branch offices. Rank Zerox used internal benchmarking with much success, transmitting best practices experiences between its 20 different operating companies across Europe Smith, (1994).

Tqm Implementation

Total Quality Implementation has always been said to be influenced by culture. A strong organizational culture exerts tremendous influence on the behavior of the firms’ employees. Webster (1995:7) suggests that those informal forces within the firm can sometimes be even more influential than written policies and guidelines. However, Juran (1993) said that there is no need to redesign culture to instill the discipline of quality improvements. He stresses that what is needed to make TQM work is the adherence to its principles, practices and techniques. Kano (1993) on the other hand, says that one needs to take cultural background into account when implementing TQM. However, he stresses that culture is not a barrier to the implementation of Throwover according to King Chung Woon, (2000) the assessment of TQM has not been the subject of much empirical work. Research based on quality award frameworks is even less. Moreover, the successful implementation of TQM in any organization can be well judged by customers who consume the products or services, (Zaire, 1994). The common reasons why TQM fails in most organizations are as follows: the absence of or inadequate attention to several key quality factors, failure to devise and implement a strategy that fits an organization’s unique situation (Hart and Schlesinger, 1999) Also high expectations of quick results from TQM programme (Merron, 1994).

Hard and Soft Factors

Reflecting on the model of TQM by Oakland (1993), the review suggest that the key components of that impact on TQM implementation are a combination of “hard” and “soft” quality factors. The soft quality factors are intangible and difficult to measure issues and are related to leadership and employee involvement. They include senior executive commitment and involvement, entire workforce commitment to quality goals of the organization, supervisors, section heads and managers assume new roles. Furthermore, some soft quality factors are; effective communication, staff empowerment, teamwork, recognition and appreciation of quality efforts and finally training and education.

Tqm Covering All Parts of the Organization

For an organization to be truly effective, every single part of it, each department, each activity and each person and each level must work properly together. One of the most powerful aspects to emerge from TQM business philosophy is the concept of the internal customers and suppliers. This is recognized that everyone is a customer within the organization and consumer goods or services provided by the other internal suppliers, and everyone is also an internal supplier of goods and services for internal customers (Lash 1990). By virtue of the explanation of above, it is therefore evident that soft quality factors are long-term issues that need to be addressed on a continuous basis. While the effective manipulation of the soft factors is essential to the attainment of the quality goals, they must be supported by the ‘Hard’ factors to manage, track and improve the journey towards the goals. Therefore, these include performance measurements, self-assessment, customer management, benchmarking, cost of quality process and managing change processes.

Total Quality Management Failures

The successful implementation of TQM in an organization can be judged by customers who consume the products or services (Zaire 1994). A total quality Management programme is therefore considered a failure if it fails to improve the operations to continuously add value for customer satisfaction, profitably and service delivery. Considering that implementing a TQM system is one of the complex tasks that an organization might encounter, (Glover 1993). Martin and Toledo (2000) warns that many TQM programmes introduced have failed, bringing into question the credibility of TQM. Possible causes of failure include inadequacy of quality planning and incomplete programs, lack of appropriate quality management reference models, an emphasis on image not business results, focus on minimum standards already existent, non- alignment with strategic objectives and luck of continuity of the implementation of the programs. Kanji et al (1993) stated that it is not surprising that there are as many TQM failures as there are success stories. Some of the reasons why TQM fails in most organizations are as follows as per Gilbert (1992) findings, the absence of, or inadequate attention to several key quality factors. Hart et al (1996) concurs with Gilbert (1992) by stating that the failure to devise and implement a strategy that fits an organization’s unique situation also contributes to the failure of an organization. High expectation of quick results from TQM programme, (Meron 1994).

Chapter Summary

According to literature search done by the researcher, total quality management is not a one-off process, but rather the continuous examination and improvement of existing process. The TQM philosophy looks for uninterrupted, ongoing incremental change. In other words, there is always room for improvement and continuously trying to become better. The literature review has covered the TQM concept and many wider issues of implementation such as cultural differences, failures and the reasons why, and the need to consider TQM from the point of view of hard and soft issues which organizations need to consider when implementing TQM programmes. The literature discussed in this chapter has been used to guide the rest of the paper in terms of data collection, analysis and recommendation. Also, the review has demonstrated that there is a vast array of literature on TQM and its key components. Therefore, implementation of TQM is not a straightforward management action, rather to implement with holistic approach. One such important TQM factor is supplying chain management which is the sequence of organizations, their facilities, functions and activities that are involved in producing and delivering a product or a service. The need of supply chain management is to improve operations, increase the level of outsourcing, and decrease the transportation cost. It also contributes numerous benefits as it doubles its inventory turnover, it doubles profits and increases sales and it also increase market share. The next is chapter three which entails the details of the methodology adopted for this research.

Introduction

The importance of this chapter is to describe the methodology and technical approach, which was adopted in addressing the research questions and objectives of the study. This is necessary in order to appreciate the nature of the research and the manner in which the study was designed and conducted as this has implications for reliability and validity of survey findings. The chapter is structured around philosophy, research strategy and design and approach adopted the research methods and applications including questionnaire design, sampling, questionnaire administration, data analysis and interpretation. It ends by outlining the limitations of the study.

Research Philosophy

Saunders [8] mentioned there are two research philosophies that are available. One is positivism, where a researcher works with an observable social reality where the end product is a law-like generalization like those by natural and physical scientists. The other is phenomenology where one works to discover the details of a situation to understand the reality working behind them. This research used both literature review as well as primary data to evaluate the impact of TQM at MCSL. Based on the foregoing explanation, it is noted that this researcher falls more on the philosophy of phenomenology.

Research Strategy and Design

This study employed descriptive research to best answer the research questions and objectives. It is a primarily a descriptive research in that it attempts to present and describe the opinions and attitudes of MCSL managers and supervisors through primary search of data. The reason for choosing the descriptive strategy was because the other studies pertaining to TQM principles in circumstances successfully used in the past. The study was conducted at MCSL at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe – the Capital City of Malawi. It was expected that key issues of TQM principles would emerge after data analysis. The study took an induction approach emphasizing how MCSL managers and supervisors understand and interpret TQM principles.

Study Population

The study will use 10 top managers, 25 middle managers, 15 supervisors, and 10 clerical staff as its study population. In addition to that, the researcher will interview 10 customers through oral interviews. This will be done to make the study more encompassing and present the varied opinions, attitudes and sentiments of the diverse respondent categories more appropriately.

Research Strategy

Saunders et al (2003) defines a research strategy as a general plan of how you will go about answering the research question(s) you have set. It is stressed that the different research strategies are not mutually exclusive but what is more important is the suitability of each strategy for the research questions and objectives. Saunders et al (2003) listed some strategies as follows: experiment, survey, case study, grounded theory, action research, cross functional and longitudinal studies, exploratory, descriptive and explanatory studies. Case study – Robson (2002:17) defines case study as a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context using multiple sources of evidence. Data collection methods employed may include questionnaires, interviews, observation, and documentary analysis. This strategy is very useful for providing a richer understanding of the context of the research and the process being enacted (Morris and Wooden 1991), Saunders et al (2002) argue that a case study can be a very worthwhile way of exploring existing theory. This researcher therefore observed that this research was a good means to gain more insight in the problem that is being investigated. This involves several exercises, literature review of Total quality Management concept (TQM), collection of data using questionnaires and in-depth interviews with MCSL management. Both conceptual and trade literature relevant to the research questions and objectives was consulted during the problem formulation. Part of the aims was to investigate the extent to which theories expressed through literature review about Total Quality Management (TQM) and performance Excellence are true in MCSL.

Sampling Procedure

The researcher will come up with 60 selected samples from different levels in following manner: 10 employees from Top management, 25 employees from middle management 15 employees from supervisors and lastly 10 employees from clerical level. Sampling is vital because time, technical and financial resources are limited, and sampling will help the researcher to survey a representative group. Saunders et al (2003) describe two main types of sampling techniques: Probability and non-probability, where an objective method and a probability sample can calculate each person’s chances of selection. Churchill and lacobucci [9] say that non probabilistic involve personnel judgment in the selection process. The elements are handpicked because it is expected that they are representative of the population of interest and can therefore serve the research purpose.

Data Collection

The data collection instrument was largely a structured questionnaire designed to capture qualitative data. This study used one structured questionnaire (Appendix 1) this was designed to provide primary data on TQM principles from managers who are policy makers. The questions also included some open-ended and multiple-choice questions, and they contributed more information that helped to guide the flow in the data collection process. The questionnaire contained similar questions that were given to all respondents. The administration involved hand delivery using the drop-and pick-up-later approach. Responses were thus obtained through the same modes, but some respondents brought responses on their own. The questions were also filled in face-to-face interviews.

Collection of primary data using in-depth interviews: In-depth interviews was conducted face to face with management and staff. This was used to gain more insights into issues raised in the questionnaires. Some interviews were also conducted with a sample of 10 customers on face-to-face interviews

Collection of primary data using questionnaires

Saunders et al (2003) discuss the use and merits of the questionnaire at length; some of the relevant points are outlined and discussed below: - the questionnaire is one of the most used survey data collected techniques. The survey techniques provide an efficient way of collecting responses from large samples prior to qualitative analysis since each respondent replies to the same set of questions. Questionnaires were administered through different media, self-administered, drop and pick. The important factor is that the administration should be appropriate to the type of questionnaire. To ensure the validity and reliability of data, it is good practice to pretest the questionnaire. The questionnaire will be self-administered by the researcher and some areas will be clarified by the respondents.

Using multi-methods: The research methods approaches and strategies do not exist in isolation and therefore can be mixed and matched. Saunders et al (2003) argue that it is beneficial to mix and unusual for a single study to combine both qualitative methods and to use secondary and primary data. The two major advantages to employing multi-methods as listed by Saunders et al (2003) are that different methods can be used for different purposes in a study. The second advantage is that it enables triangulation to take place. Triangulation refers to use of different data collection methods within one study in order to ensure that the data tells you what you think they are telling you. Triangulation also helps to cancel out the effects of one method on results and leads to one having confidence in the results obtained.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The analysis of data was guided by the research questions and objectives presented in chapter 1 of this dissertation. This research study is basically qualitative and like any other qualitative research. This study is an attempt to address the nature of attitudes and opinions that holds about TQM at MCSL. Data analysis therefore involved classifying opinions, attitudes and perceptions using charts, graphs and tables. Interpretation of results was therefore general without specifying which TQM principle was superior to the rest. What was important was to find out what strategies could be adopted to improve the MCSL operations.

Qualitative data analysis: To understand the complexity of analyzing qualitative data, it is important to understand the differences of the two types of data. Saunders et al (2003) point out these differences as follows: - Qualitative data is based on meaning expressed through words, collection of results forms quantitative data. Quantitative data is numerical and standardized while qualitative data is none standardized, therefore requires classification into categories. Quantitative data is analyzed using statistics, diagrams, and graphs, while qualitative data is analyzed through conceptualization. Qualitative data therefore does not follow a standard approach. Saunders et al (2003) list several ways which can be used to analyze qualitative data, categorization, attaching units, drawing relationships to facilitate further categorization and developing and testing hypotheses to come up with well-grounded conclusions. The researcher used Microsoft Excel to analyze data and interpretation of the data. Therefore, qualitative data analysis was used for the collected data. Research questions and objectives determine the exact type of tables and diagrams to be used, the data aspects and level of measurement at which data was collected. The following could be use tables showing specific values, bar charts, histograms to show highest and lowest values, line graphs to show trends (Saunders et al 2003).

Limitations of the Study

The major limitation factor was the response rate of the employees who took longer time before submitting back the questionnaire responses. Nine employees didn’t respond; because of busy office schedules within their daily office obligation.

Chapter Summary

The role of total Quality Management (TQM) in achieving organizational performance excellence as assessed in MCSL will be examined through a case study. This research involved secondary data collection from literature review and primary data from ADL and MCSL management team. The researcher did use the secondary data also. In the next chapter, which is four, thus where the findings and analysis will be analyzed.

Research Findings & Analysis

Introduction

To answer the research questions raised and meet the research objectives, relevant primary data and secondary data were obtained and analyzed to bring forward the underlying facts for this research. These are outlined in the sections below.

Findings From Primary Research

. Questionnaire Results/Findings: This section focuses on the analysis of the various data collected using the different methodologies as discussed in chapter three. The results of the analysis will then be related and realigned with the literature review to form the basis for recommendations and implementation.

Significance of TQM implementation

The Managers were asked if the company’s culture is significant in TQM implementation. Figure 1 summarizes the findings. Figure 1 above shows that 20 managers out of 51 representing 39% agreed that the company culture’s implementation of TQM at MCSL is more important. This finding suggests that for an organization to succeed in its operations TQM factors should be considered at most. Most companies have closed due to non-TQM compliance.

TQM Principles: Managers were asked if MCSL has effective TQM principles. Figure 2 below illustrates the findings. Figure 2 above shows that 48 employees out of 51 representing 94% said that MCSL have no effective TQM principles in practice and only 3 respondents out of 51 represented 6% agreed that MCSL do have Total Quality Management principles in use. The repercussion of this finding is that MCSL management should consider implementing TQM effective principles.

Customer Service delivery: Employees were asked to rate the importance of TQM factors. Table 1 below illustrates the ratings. Table 2 above shows that 48 0ut of 51 employees, that represent 94% agreed that customer satisfaction is very important factor and 5.9% that represent 3 employees out of 51said it is important. The table also shows that Maximum and Just in time are very important in an organization. This means that customer satisfaction, Maximum input and just in time are the prime goals of total quality management implementation. That’s why it’s important to set proper and reliable systems in place to ensure that customer needs and satisfaction are known and satisfied forthwith. But the overall perception shows that MCSL do not take into account the importance of the said factors so far.

TQM Challenges at MCSL: Managers were asked if MCSL experience any problems or challenges within TQM effective principles. Figure 3 summarizes the findings. According to the results on Figure 3 above, 49 employees out of 51, that represent, 96% said that MCSL do not have TQM challenges. The rest said MCSL experiences TQM challenges. This means MCSL do not have the mechanism of implementation of TQM challenges. No wonder the company is facing financial challenges.

Rating of TQM Factors: Managers were asked to rate TQM factors. Figure 4 illustrates the ratings. Figure 4 above shows that most managers rated 98% on service quality, 96% on service delivery, 90% flexibility and 94 % on cost effectiveness as average. Figure 5 above, services quality, service delivery, Flexibility and cost effectiveness is average while efficiency and Dependability is poor at MCSL. The study revealed that employees have different views on the TQM factors. Generally, the respondents disagreed with the 11 TQM factors that formed part of the questionnaire. It was felt that these factors were of less importance. The ranking of the factors was then compared to employees’ perception on current performance against each factor to help in coming up with actions in TQM implementations. It was also observed through the review of respondents’ data that management needed to put more emphasis on most of these TQM factors.

Top Management Commitment: Employees were asked to what extent Top Management of MCSL supports Quality Management. Figure 5 below summarizes the findings. Figure 5 above shows that 20 out of 51 respondents representing 39.2% agreed that Top management really supports the quality management. Most of the employees seem not to be sure. However, 8 out of 51 employees representing 15% disagreed that Top Management support the quality management. According to this analysis, it shows that there is no Top Management commitment at MCSL as the majority is not sure and others disagree. The connotation of this finding is that the parent company (ADL) should consider restructuring and rationalizing the MCSL structure.

Efficiency of Supply Chain Management: Managers were asked to rate the Supply Chain Management of MCSL on whether there’s customer satisfaction, punctuality and efficiency. Figure 6 illustrates the findings. Figure 6 above shows that 48 out of 51 employees representing 94.11% rated average customer satisfaction while the majority rated punctuality and efficiency very poor. This means that the suppliers are happy with the system in place. This at least brings more transparent in supply chain Management. The study revealed that most of the time there are delays in processing documents that lead to holding up the management accounts processing. With the above captioned analysis, customer satisfaction is considered average while punctuality and efficiency in the supply chain is very poor at MCSL. This has negatively affected the production and contributes to the poor relationship with the creditors.

Integration of TQM with MCSL Vision and Mission statement: The Managers were asked to what extent is quality management integrated into MCSL vision and mission statement. Table 2 below illustrates the findings. Table 2 above indicates that 46 employees out of 51 represents 90.6% and said that the integration of TQM with MCSL vision/mission is not important while the rest didn’t have anything to say. The implication of this is that the entire staff of MCSL is working without direction. This also reflects the incompetence of management by not implementing mission and vision statement. Those organizations that have Vision and Mission statement in place work for targets to meet the company’s’ visions and missions’ objectives.

TQM factors ranking: Employees were asked to indicate how important the given TQM factors are in comparison with others to the success of the organization. Table 3 below summarizes the ranking by the respondents by taking into consideration rating A, B, and C as the ranking factors. Table 3 above shows as fundamentals measure of TQM, as 35 out of 51employees which is 70% of the respondents agreed that customer satisfaction is very important. 24 employees out of 51 represented, 47% said that employees’ performance is also very important in organization. The same number of employees as of employees’ performance recommended that supplier partnership & management are the only keys to organization excellence. Therefore, the above-mentioned factors, Customer satisfaction, Employee performance, Supplier partnership & management have been recommended by many respondents that show that these three factors are very important. 36 employees out of 51 that represent 70% said that Supervision and good policies are just important and unimportant respectively as per respondent’s views, yet the gurus of TQM consider these factors as crucial for organizational excellence as highlighted in chapter two on literature review.

Customer satisfaction

Majority of the respondents agreed that customer satisfaction is very important in total quality Management. Figure 7 above, 71% of the respondents that represent 36 employees out of 51 agreed that customer satisfaction is very important. Therefore, lack of customer satisfaction could be due to lack of competition that the company enjoyed for years especially in in-flight catering where the company was almost a monopoly until recent years when competitors have entered into the market. This is to confirm that customer satisfaction is one of the important components in business. If the customers are treated well, then the company should expect good sales in return.

Employee performance

Figure 8 above clearly shows that 24 employees out of 51 represent 47% of the respondents agreed that employee performance is very important and the same number disagree to say that employee performance at the organization is unimportant. This analysis therefore portrays the contradictory that other employees support good performance, while some do not understand its importance

Supplier partnership & management

Figure 9 below illustrates the findings. Figure 9 above shows 47% that represent 24 out of 51 of the respondents indicated that supplier partnership and management is very important, and 41% that represent 21 out of 51 respondents said that Supplier partnership & management is important while 6 out of 51 that represents 12% responded that it is unimportant. The analysis shows the level of staff understanding on issues of supply partnership and management as half agreed and almost the same number do not see the importance of it. This portrays the intellectuals’ capabilities in most of MCSL employees.

Findings From Secondary Data

The findings were extracted from some old financial and management meetings minutes. It was discovered that most complaints from customers were increasing day by day in most of MCSL outlets such as poor services, and shortage of supplies. This could be a lack of training for the staff in customer care and also due to age of the equipment that is not performing up required standard.

Operational Fixed Assets

Members were interviewed face to face to state how has been the the use and the performance of working machinery. Below is Table 4 which illustrates the status of assets. Table 4 above shows that machines are almost 26 years old. The analysis shows that machines are in a very bad state. Records and analysis show that some of the machines are so old that it is even difficult to get spare parts when they break down and some of the equipments have been improvised. This has contributed to the poor performance of the company, hence making losses. From the records of 1988 sales collected, there were a lot of ice blocks being produced and were being sold to outsiders as well. But now the production of the ice cubes is very low due to that one machine is not working. The company is losing some revenues because of the said problem. The sales analysis of 1999 from profit and loss statement shows that MCSL used to produce and sell a lot bread that was liked by many customers. But due to break down of the Bread making oven, the company is no longer making Bread anymore. This has reduced the company revenue. It has been noticed that MCSL used to store other companies’ perishable goods in the cold rooms and used to charge storage fees. This was extracted from the profit and loss statement of 1999. But due to the malfunctioning of the compressors, very few cold rooms are working, hence there is a small storage area, enough for own use only. The laundry is used to clean airline linen and staff clothes at a fee. These were being done in large volume that used to generate more money for the company. But it has been discovered that, such services have completely been phased out, because the laundry machine is no more working, instead the company has bought small domestic equipment that can’t handle big laundry processes.

The Boiler machine is not fully working. It used to supply steam water to the entire kitchen for utensils cleaning. But now it is not functioning properly, instead the company has employed more cleaners to do the cleaning work manually, which is heavily affecting the company cash flow as the wage bill has been increased. The company used to have five working high loaders. But now there is only three working and most of the time the flight delays to take off. On several occasions the High loaders did develop a problem while uplifting meals to the Aircraft. Therefore, the company is losing a lot for the costs of spares. Though the company holds quarterly board meetings, it was observed that no regular staff management meetings take place. In fact most of the instructions or decisions of replacing this old equipments would have been discussed at management level. This research revealed that the hierarchy of the company does not marry with the TQM models. It has also been revealed that MCSL is operating as a section within the parent company ADL while in principle / agent theory, the agent should be very autonomy in terms of administration. This set up dilute MCSL management decisions anyway.

Response Rate

Saunders et al (2003) and Churchill [9] outline the importance of the response rates in research. They state that low response rate contribute highly to the marginal error. However, Barbie (1990) argues that “a response rate of 50% is generally considered adequate for analysis and reporting. A response rate of 60% is considered good and the response rate of 70% or more is very good. This researcher took 60 from 187 employees as sample population which comprised 10 employees from top management, 25 employees from middle managers, 15 from supervisory and the other 10 from clerical staff. The sample represented all departments. 51 out of 60 employees responded to the questionnaire that represented 85%. Nine employees didn’t respond; because of busy schedules within their daily office obligation as per their say therefore the researchers consider the response rate as adequate for analysis and reporting

Chapter Summary

This chapter presents and discusses results of findings from the study. The chapter has also identified and examined the strengths and shortfalls of TQM on profitability and services delivery at MCSL. The implications that could arise out of suggestions for improving the TQM principles and concepts have also been exposed in the chapter. The findings in chapter four will therefore be the basis for the next chapter which outlines conclusions and recommendations that have been derived from TQM literature and survey findings to provide a basis on which MCSL can formulate or develop effective TQM Strategies to improve the operations. In the next chapter, that is where the recommendation and conclusion will be enlightened [10-20].

Conclusions And Recommendations

Introduction

Based on the survey findings presented and discussed in this research, the conclusions was to be drawn and recommendations formulated in order to lay out a practical path for MCSL to improve its performance. In developing these recommendations, special consideration was made to both the short and long-term dynamic expectations of MCSL. The analysis of the results has shown that for effective implementation of TQM at Malawi Catering Services Limited through critical factors, there are areas that require improvements in both factors and approach to implementation. For the implementation of TQM factors to be successful, all critical factors that were included in the questionnaire and got ranking, but were perceived to be underperforming have to be addressed forthwith [21-32].

Conclusions

There were three important research questions in this study. The first was “Does MCSL apply the effective principles of TQM such as good leadership?” the second was “Which critical factors in MCSL have not been managed properly to satisfy customers such as customer care and service delivery, and the third was “How can MCSL improve its operations based on TQM principles?” The following conclusions come out clearly about these research questions: Based on the findings for this research, the following criteria come out clearly regarding the research objectives. The findings revealed that MCSL does not have vision/mission statement in place and exposed the incompetence of leadership by not being able to enforce the implementation of Mission and vision statement that would assist to meet the company’s objectives. Furthermore, most of TQM factors were rated very deprived, that means customer care and service delivery is meager. The weakest factor of MCSL is Leadership and its Management who do not have strategically vision that would give enthusiasm in the employees for maximum input of performance. MCSL should factor in several TQM strategies to improve the operations.

Recommendations

The following six recommendations are suggested for MCSL to improve its Operations:

Improve Customer Care and Service Delivery: Focus on customer care must be a priority for MCSL to ensure that the product or services provided is perceived to exceed customer expectations since quality is what the customer expects. Customer care can be retained by handling all customer complaints professionally. Avoid erratic supply of commodities in all outlets. Assure the customers of the product safety and fast services delivery process.

Train Front Line Staff: Provide training to all front line officers that will improve customer services and deliveries. The training can be of different type, either in-house or exchange programmes with similar service providers, on agreement i.e. Sunbird Hotels.

Develop the Company’s Vision Statement: Develop and clarify the company’s vision and objectives for everyone to appreciate and work towards achieving the same goal. The company must target to achieve goal congruence where the goals of the staff and company are the same. Explain and display Vision and companies’ objectives on strategic positions for every employee and even visitors to see. The mission and vision statement should be in line with the company’s objectives. Develop a company, Logo and Slogan that will assist in marketing the company’s products and services.

Establish TQM Sterling committee: The company should form the Sterling Committee on TQM principles to oversee and coordinate the implementation and improvement process once the mission is explained and understood by everyone. Management must explain to everyone that improvement is a long-term aspect and is the result of team effort.

Change the Company’s Leadership and Management: The research has revealed the weaknesses of leadership & management have heavily contributed to the decline of business at MCSL. Therefore, leadership and management need to be changed and replaced with the competent ones who will be committed to achieving the company’s objectives. The research reveals that management was even failing to facilitate management meetings.

Cost cutting measures: MCSL therefore should tighten internal controls over expenditure. Cost-cutting measures must be introduced which will ensure that MCSL is running within its means of income and that more money is allocated to budgeted activities rather than to administrative costs. Prudent financial management is therefore essential in this regard and however, the introduction of cost-cutting measures should not mean that essential parts of business should suffer. TQM principles should be implemented as stated in the literature review that will assist in sealing of most performance gaps. Therefore, in the recommendation section, MCSL is obliged to implement some of TQM principles.

Practical Contribution

The main two practical reasons for failing to implement TQM principles at MCSL are: first is the inept leadership and management to drive the vision and mission statement of the company and embrace continuous improvement culture. And the second reason is that not all critical business processes are efficient and effective in achieving superior world-class performance results. This research identified several areas which urgently need improvement under the Total Quality Management areas of which most critical were: “Leadership & Management change and customer satisfaction”. This is in line with TQM factors that leadership drives policy and strategy through management of people, processes and resources to deliver superior customer satisfaction, which in turn lead to better business

Further Research Needs

Research is supposed to breed more understanding ideas than the status quo as available when the exercise started. With such facts gained during this investigation, several principally interesting proposals for future research projects can be envisaged. Therefore, more research is to be done on TQM, mainly in Strategic Management and Corporate Governance

Concluding Remarks

There is evidence from MCSL that any attempt to introduce TQM without strong leadership and commitment from management would strongly be opposed at all levels of the organization. This is because employees are not aware of the company objectives. This research has identified that most employees need education and training to help them understand the terminology involved and to increase their personal involvement and commitment to the process of bringing about performance excellence in MCSL.

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