Selecting quality management and improvement initiatives: case studies of industries in Thailand

Many organisations invest a considerable amount of capital and resources, implementing new techniques to improve their operating performance. Many approaches and techniques are available. New fashionable methods tend to displace older approaches, which may still have value. An effective strategy for selecting and implementing improvement initiatives is an important issue to ensure stakeholder satisfaction. This research aims to investigate quality management and continuous improvement practices, study and analyse several approaches leading to continuous improvement (CI), then construct a framework to assist senior management teams, by providing a decision aid for selecting improvement initiatives. Six key improvement approaches including Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, ISO9001, Business Process Reengineer (BPR), Lean production (Lean), Business Excellence framework (BE) were selected as the focus in this study. The research was carried out in three phases. Phase One established a conceptual background for the adoption of CI initiatives based on qualitative and quantitative studies of the literature. It described the two decision criteria of fashion setting and pay-offs. Phase Two provided empirical studies of the Quality Management (QM) approaches adopted in three case companies in Thailand. Different decision criteria for the selection of CI approaches were identified from these case studies, together with suggestions from fourteen quality experts and two additional case companies. In-depth analyses of each case study plus interviews with quality experts provided a context and guidance in development of the decision-aid framework for selecting CI approaches. Then in Phase Three the decision-aid framework was proposed, verified, and refined in testing with a multinational case company of four different plants in the Asia Pacific region and two groups of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) using action research and assessment questionnaires. The primary outcome of this research is a decision-aid for selecting CI approaches, which demonstrated high utility in practice. The main contributions of this research are a decision-aid for selecting CI initiatives, which was developed and tested, and a number of advancements to the theory of QM and CI, the theory of management fashion, and the application of operations strategy in the QM context

An innovative price plan monitoring and advisory system: A case study of mobile telecom service in Thailand

An innovative price plan monitoring and advisory system simulates subscriber usage consumption for offering suitable price plan. The aim of this paper is to develop the decision support system by using Statistical Process Control (SPC) to identify subscriber usage behavior and provide critical visibility into subscriber consumption to detect their inappropriate usage especially in exceeding usage. To explore subscriber usage behavior, a forecasting model and a regression is employed to identify related factors and predictive usage model. The innovative price plan monitoring and advisory system has been verified and validated with one of the largest telecommunication company in Thailand. Using decision support system with effective control chart and real subscriber behavior pattern help mobile network operator grow their revenues and profits by offering an appropriate price plan as well as improve subscriber experience with more flexible choice to meet their individual usage consumption needs

Improvement of Vehicle Service System by the Application of Lean Six Sigma

This research aims to improve the efficiency of vehicle service system in Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University. The study adopted the lean six sigma methods with DMAIC process and New Service Development by following 5D steps which are Discover, Define, Design, Develop and Deploy. In this process, the Lean Six Sigma or DMAIC is implemented and considered as the main tool which is used together with the development of service innovation in order to equip the tools with fully developed characters. The occurred problems and its root causes were discovered and defined by using SERVQUAL questionnaires to evaluate customer satisfaction levels to 20 service dimensions. Innovative solutions were generated by using the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and lean techniques. The action plan includes: 1) developing a vehicle reservation system which can be done via intranet, 2) redesigning the back-end procedure by applying the ECRS principle and developing the manual, 3) improving the quality control and assessment system, 4) developing a new working standard for customers and drivers. After the implementation of this new system, the car users were satisfied with the service as the score (1 - 5 Likert scale) increased by 30% from 3.35 as the medium level to 4.37 as the good level. The time of check back system is decreased by 87% from 15.5 minutes to 2 minute

Selecting quality management and improvement initiatives: case studies of industries in Thailand

Many organisations invest a considerable amount of capital and resources, implementing new techniques to improve their operating performance. Many approaches and techniques are available. New fashionable methods tend to displace older approaches, which may still have value. An effective strategy for selecting and implementing improvement initiatives is an important issue to ensure stakeholder satisfaction. This research aims to investigate quality management and continuous improvement practices, study and analyse several approaches leading to continuous improvement (CI), then construct a framework to assist senior management teams, by providing a decision aid for selecting improvement initiatives. Six key improvement approaches including Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, ISO9001, Business Process Reengineer (BPR), Lean production (Lean), Business Excellence framework (BE) were selected as the focus in this study. The research was carried out in three phases. Phase One established a conceptual background for the adoption of CI initiatives based on qualitative and quantitative studies of the literature. It described the two decision criteria of fashion setting and pay-offs. Phase Two provided empirical studies of the Quality Management (QM) approaches adopted in three case companies in Thailand. Different decision criteria for the selection of CI approaches were identified from these case studies, together with suggestions from fourteen quality experts and two additional case companies. In-depth analyses of each case study plus interviews with quality experts provided a context and guidance in development of the decision-aid framework for selecting CI approaches. Then in Phase Three the decision-aid framework was proposed, verified, and refined in testing with a multinational case company of four different plants in the Asia Pacific region and two groups of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) using action research and assessment questionnaires. The primary outcome of this research is a decision-aid for selecting CI approaches, which demonstrated high utility in practice. The main contributions of this research are a decision-aid for selecting CI initiatives, which was developed and tested, and a number of advancements to the theory of QM and CI, the theory of management fashion, and the application of operations strategy in the QM context

Design of an operations manager selection system in service encounter

The purpose of this study is to provide criteria for selecting operations managers at the ‘service encounter’ for mobile telecommunication companies, and develop a system for this multi-criteria decision-making scheme based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). There are three main criteria for evaluating the capability of service-encounter operation managers: (1) the ability to design service process; (2) the ability to operate service process; (3) the ability to conduct improvement. The AHP operation manager selection tool was developed based on the complex problems at the service encounter. It was created as a decision support system which was used to recruit and evaluate operations managers’ capability for the purpose of career advancement

Total Quality and Innovation Management in Healthcare (TQIM-H) for an Effective Innovation Development: A Conceptual Framework and Exploratory Study

To thrive, an organization must adapt to the fast and constant change in the economic environment caused by an aging society, technological changes, and the pandemic crisis. Innovation becomes important for the adaptation of industries. Healthcare is one of them. Innovation development in hospitals is effective and acceptable when its management is effective and aligns with the healthcare quality context since quality is a philosophy of work in life-related settings. To the best of our knowledge, quality management and innovation management in healthcare have never been integrated. Therefore, this research aimed to create an integrated framework of quality and innovation management in healthcare (TQIM-H). To establish the effectiveness of applying TQIM-H for the development of effective healthcare innovation, this study developed a TQIM-H conceptual framework using multiple methodologies including a literature review, multiple case studies analysis, Delphi study with healthcare experts, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and triangulation with an external dataset. We constructed a TQIM-H conceptual framework, consisting of seven dimensions, that can be used in developing innovation projects in hospitals and which agrees with safety and quality principles in hospitals

A combined technique using SEM and TOPSIS for the commercialization capability of R&D project evaluation

There is a high risk of R&D based innovation being commercialized, especially in the innovation transfer process which is a concern to many entrepreneurs and researchers. The purpose of this research is to develop the criteria of R&D commercialization capability and to propose a combined technique of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for R&D project evaluation. The research utilized a mixed-method approach. The first phase comprised a qualitative study on commercialization criteria development though the survey research of 272 successful entrepreneurs and researchers in all industrial sectors in Thailand. The data was collected with a structured questionnaire and analyzed by SEM. The second phase was involved with SEM-TOPSIS technique development and a case study of 45 R&D projects in research institutes and incubators for technique validation. The research results reveal that there were six criteria for R&D project commercialization capability, these are arranged according to the significance; marketing, technology, finance, non-financial impact, intellectual property, and human resource. The holistic criteria is presented in decreasing order on the ambiguous subjectivity of the fuzzy-expert system, to help with effectively funding R&D and to prevent a resource meltdown. This study applies SEM to the relative weighting of hierarchical criteria. The TOPSIS approach is employed to rank the alternative performance. An integrated SEM-TOPSIS is proposed for the first time and applied to present R&D projects shown to be effective and feasible in evaluating R&D commercialization capacity