Chapter one
Introduction
1.1Background of the study
Any organization in any line of business requires a quality management program or some sort of quality program that is instituted from executive management down to the lowest level employee. While each particular function within an organization requires quality processes modeled after its own unique requirements, this individual quality processes should be designed and established based on the principles of the overall quality management program. One of such quality programmes is Total Quality Management (TQM). Total Quality Management (TQM) has been defined as an integrated organizational effort designed to improve quality at every level (Dale, 1999). TQM is also defined as a quest for excellence, fitness for use, value for money, customer satisfaction etc (Mohanty and Lakhe, 1994).
The concept of quality has existed for many years, though its meaning has changed and evolved over time. In the early twentieth century, quality management meant inspecting products to ensure that they met specifications. In the 1940s, during World War II, quality became more statistical in nature. Statistical sampling techniques were used to evaluate quality and quality control charts were used to monitor the production process. In the 1960s, with the help of so-called quality gurus, the concept took on a broader meaning. Quality began to be viewed as something that encompassed the entire organization, not only the production process. Since all functions were responsible for product quality and all shared the costs of poor quality, quality was seen as a concept that affected the entire organization (Dhalla, 2010)
The increasing demand and sophistication of customers have virtually modified the rules and forced organization to focus on quality. Today, what underlines competitive advantage is the ability to provide products and services that meet or exceed the needs of customers. This implies that to survive, organizations must device new management systems based on the tenets total quality, and by offering quality product and services. This will not only lower costs but also outperform the products and services of competitors spread across the world. This is the driving force behind total quality management. Global economic competition has increase in the past few decades.
One of the major value customers expect from vendors is high quality product and services. Most consumers will no longer accept or tolerate poor quality goods and services. If companies want to stay in the race, let alone be profitable, they have no choice but to adopt total quality management (TQM). Total quality management is significant to the following organization operating in a competitive business environment for the following reasons: the total quality management emphasis on the whole organization, the total quality management requirement for active support from senior management, and the significant contribution that TQM can make to competitive advantage
Quality aspect has become one of the most important factors in global competition today. Increasing demand by customers for better quality of product in market place has encouraged many companies to provide quality product and services in order to compete in the marketplace successfully. To meet the challenge of this global competition, many businesses have invested substantial resources in adapting and implementing total quality management (TQM) practices in their operations. TQM is defined as an action plan to produce and deliver commodities or services, which are consistent with customers’ needs or requirements by better, cheaper, faster, safer, easier processing than competitors with the participation of all employees under top management leadership (Lakhal et al., 2006). Therefore, manufacturing companies should be focus to quality. Attention to quality generates positive impact to business performance through both the impact on production costs and earnings (Gaspersz, 2005)
Generally, competitive advantage suggests that each organization have one or more of the following capabilities when compared to its competitors, such as lower prices, higher quality, higher dependability, and shorter delivery time. These capabilities will enhance the organization’s sales volume and overall performance (Mentzer et al., 2000). Organization can charge premium prices and increase its profit margin on sales and return on investment (ROI), if they can able to offer the high quality products consistently. Each organization has a short time to market and rapid product innovation can be the first in the market, so they will enjoy a higher market share and sales volume (Li et al., 2006).
Sales volume refers to the number of units your company sells during a specific reporting period. This period could be a month, a quarter, or a year depending on what level of sales volume you’re seeking to analyze. Investors frequently look at sales volume to assess the health of a growing or contracting company.
One of the major value customers expect from vendors is high quality product and services. Most consumers will no longer accept or tolerate poor quality goods and services. If companies want to stay in the race, let alone be profitable, they have no choice but to adopt total quality management (TQM). Total quality management is significant to the organization sales volume following organization operating in a competitive business environment for the following reasons: the total quality management emphasis on the whole organization, the total quality management requirement for active support from senior management, and the significant contribution that TQM can make to competitive advantage. Based on this background the researcher wants to investigate the effect of total quality management on sales volume. A case study of Nigeria bottling company of Nigeria
Statement of the problem
The study focused to find out the problems of total quality management on sale volume on Nigeria bottling company of Nigeria. This is important because total quality management may be seen as its kinds types features, property and degree of its goodness or excellence. However lot problems are faced by most by most manufacturing organization including Nigeria bottling company, in their products. these problems includes:- meeting the required standard, one of the problems is that the products are not meeting required standard, if a company’s products are satisfy the customers requirement then it is necessary to establish a standard for the functional and appearance aspect of their product as well as their durability requirement and the company will meet good sales volume. This aspect is essentially the general requirement for setting up a total quality management department in order to ensure that standards are strictly maintained for good sales volume. Problems of meeting products specification, often times, product fail to meet the specification required by customers because of assignable causes like; defective materials used, improper setting of equipment, operational errors, manpower etc. it is not worthy of mention that it cost the some amount to produce products units problems of variation in quality of product. That product by mass production method on machine repeatedly, produces with unconsciously varying quality of the products because of lack of proper quality control in place. Emphasis should therefore, be on prevention rather than error detection. Consequently, the attainment of suitable total quality depends upon appropriate human performance or behaviour when the product is being manufactured. It is a pity however that in the fact of economic depressions likes our society managers in manufacturing organization go to any length to compromise standard for their personnel and selfish interest. To ameliorate this vice, a quality control manager should be adequately remunerated so that he can perform his functions efficiently.
Objective of the study
The following research objectives are to be ascertained;
- To ascertain the effect of total quality management on Nigeria Bottling company
- To ascertain the relationship between total quality management and sales volume of Nigeria Bottling company
- To find out the effect of total quality management on consumers attraction in Nigeria Bottling company
Research Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses are formulated to guide the study;
H1: there is no relationship between total quality management and sales volume of Nigeria Bottling company
H2: there is no effect of total quality management on Nigeria Bottling company
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