Citation
Sampaio, P., Carvalho, M.S. and Fernandes, A.C. (2016), "Quality and supply chain management: integration challenges and impacts", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 33 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-01-2016-0007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Quality and supply chain management: integration challenges and impacts
Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Volume 33, Issue 4.
The globalization of the economies and the need to increase the competitiveness of the organizations through operational efficiency, promote new opportunities and challenges in the management of the entire supply chain.
Supply chain management appears as an essential tool for competitive advantage in the market and quality management influences the performance of companies and stakeholders satisfaction. Therefore, this special issue is focussed in these management philosophies in two different perspectives:
1. integration of quality management and supply chain management; and
2. supply chain quality management (SCQM) concept.
The goal is to go deeper in the knowledge of critical success factors of these approaches by empirical evidences but also clarify the relatively new concept of SCQM and the impact of the integration of supply chain management and quality management.
The Guest Editors invited authors to submit papers, both theoretic and practical applications, related to SCQM topics, namely, but not limited to:
the new concept of SCQM;
the importance of quality and supply chain management integration for companies;
the impact of SCQM integration on companies’ performance;
SCQM integration critical success factors and challenges;
SCQM integration practical issues; and
models and frameworks of SCQM implementation.
In total, 12 papers were received. However, after the review process only six papers had been selected and accepted for publication in this special issue.
We would like to thank the authors for their effort, dedication and commitment, without whom this special issue would not have been possible. Furthermore, we would particularly like to thank the reviewers for their valuable time and efforts to give feedback on all the papers submitted. We hope that the authors did appreciate the feedback and advice given to them. Finally, our special thanks to Professor Ton van der Wiele – Editor (Quality) of the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, for all the support and commitment since the first moment.
The six selected papers reflect the most recent and innovative research performed in this field.
The first paper, by Huy Truong, Paulo Sampaio, Maria Sameiro Carvalho, Ana Cristina Fernandes, Duong An and Estela Vilhena, propose a model that analyze the relationship between the adoption of SCQM practices and the firms performance. According to the authors the proposed model could be used by the organizations as a framework for theory building and as a measurement instrument for SCQM and firm performance. Additionally, practitioners/managers can apply this model as a “road map” to implement SCQM practices.
Dora Magalhães, Maria Sameiro Carvalho, Maria Varela, Jorge Sá and Isabel Gonçalves, authors of the second paper, present an online enterprise community for all logistics employees of Bosch Car Multimedia division in the Bosch Group, for an internal collaboration of the entire Bosch Group based on an IBM Connections platform: Bosch Connect. An additional concern was considered, namely, to bring employees to join the platform, making it a tool of their daily work. To support all the process creation process of the community, the authors used the Design for Six Sigma methodology, namely, the DMADV one. One of the most important contributions of this work is related to the involvement that was reached out by the Bosch Car Multimedia logistics associates, namely, in terms of communication and collaboration.
The third paper was written by Elizabeth Cudney, Ruwen Qin and Zlatan Hamzic. According to the authors as the complexity of the multi-component products increases, the quality of these products becomes increasingly difficult to control throughout the supply chain. One good option is to control the product quality through sampling inspection of the components. The focus of this paper is to present a model that was developed to determine the optimal sampling levels for incoming lots containing parts for production and assembly of multi-component systems. The main objective of the model is to minimize the expected cost that is associated with a nonconforming item reaching assembly. The results showed that even with limited time available for inspection, performing sampling inspection significantly reduced the expected cost of a nonconforming item reaching assembly. Additionally, the model developed was able to provide a meaningful, near optimal solution to the problem.
Fernanda Cagnin, Maria Oliveira, Alexandre Simon, André Helleno and Matheus Vendramini paper aim is to evaluate the supplier’s systematic selection at the automotive industry compared with the identified models in the literature. The authors concluded that the definition of criteria for suppliers’ selection aims to identify the potential risks in the supply chain before the supplier award the project. However this methodology can be improved using the FMEA tool as a comparative approach.
In the fifth paper, Claúdia Sarrico and Maria João Rosa introduce and discuss the concept of SCQM in education. The authors conclude that whereas one can think of education systems as supply chains, there are important challenges to SCQM in education, namely, regarding information sharing, trust, integration and leadership. Conversely, the authors find out some ad-hoc good practice which could be developed into more systematic SCQM practices. This paper offers a novel way of looking at the education system through the lenses of SCQM.
The last paper of this special issue, by Manuel Suarez-Barraza, José Miguel-Davila and Fabiola Vasquez-García, intends to describe the implementation of a tool called Supply Chain Value Stream Mapping (SCVSM), in order to thoroughly understand competitive priorities of volume and delivery (on-time delivery) for any supply chain in organizations. The authors conclude that the SCVSM tool could be a “vehicle” to promote TQM and lean manufacturing in the organizations.
With this special issue, we intent to make a small contribution to the development of the SCQM topic, both in terms of the scientific perspective and the practical and managerial one. We hope we did it. Enjoy it!
Paulo Sampaio, Maria Sameiro Carvalho and Ana Cristina Fernandes
Department of Systems and Production, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal