Continued need for quality and reliability management research

Citation

Madu, C.N. (2007), "Continued need for quality and reliability management research", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 24 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm.2007.04024aaa.001

Continued need for quality and reliability management research

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the first issue of IJQRM in 2007. This volume like its predecessors will continue to publish high quality articles in the areas of quality and reliability management. Both fields continue to evolve and research direction in quality management has achieved a good stride by increasingly focusing on empirical evidence and verification of some of the traditional frameworks. It is also becoming evident that quality and reliability are inter-related since it is not possible to build an unreliable quality system. For a system to be of high quality, it must therefore be highly reliable. Reliability is thus a major feature of any quality system. Organizations are now accepting the role of quality in achieving excellence. Even new initiatives by organizations center on the role of quality to enhance performance improvement. One of the areas that is getting increasing attention in organizations today is sustainable development. The world community is now focusing on how to attain sustainability by controlling emissions, wastes, and creating value with less. In this quest, it is becoming clear that lean systems that are based on quality initiatives are indeed aiding in attaining sustainability. For example, sustainable development requires the reduction in wastes, the reuse of materials, and inverse supply chain. Systems that are built around quality focus on doing things right the first time. This paradigm encourages reduction in waste and scraps, conservation of energy, and rethinking of the input-output processes. Research publications in the environmental management systems area are now employing quality management tools. Such tools as the Deming cycle, quality function deployment, fishbone diagram, Pareto charts, etc., are now appearing in environmental management literature. This recognition shows that quality management is making inroads into other fields and is cooperating in developing corporate citizenship.

What we need in the coming years is to consolidate the gains we have made in quality management research. We need to continue exploring other interdisciplinary fields where quality management could be applied and where it could be used to solve major social responsibility problems. Sustainable development which I have mentioned is an area that requires due attention. While nations agree that it is a worthwhile goal to focus on sustainable development, it is difficult to achieve because resolution of one environmental burden may lead to the emergence of another. Furthermore, life cycle assessments often lead to complex unending chains that may make it difficult to analyze. However, we can bring our knowledge of quality management to bear on such problems. The holistic views adopted in quality management by studying the totality of the organization and seeing each functional unit as interdependent will help to find better solutions to such problems. Furthermore, quality management literature has shown that quality decision-making can be enhanced by listening to the voice of the customer so that the right products are introduced to them. Listening to the voice of the customer often requires working with the customer in a team to design and develop the product as the customer wants. This same approach is pertinent in policy making where the “voice of the stakeholder” should be integrated in developing acceptable systems to them. A system that is participatory and interactive is always necessary in solving complex decision or policy problems.

Reliability and equipment maintenance are also important in achieving increased productivity. Companies that have high reliability are going to gain competitive advantage. In our highly automated society with more and more emphasis being put on rapid service delivery, an organization with unreliable processes will have many unhappy customers. When customers are dissatisfied, they will take their businesses elsewhere. Customer loyalty is lost and the cost of customer retention increases. With the rapid proliferation of new process technologies, an organization with unreliable processes will have delayed and difficult time in capital equipment cost recovery. This would further exacerbate the problem of equipment modernization and therefore competitiveness. Quality and reliability are interrelated and are key features to achieving competitiveness.

There is great opportunity for research in quality management but that will come when we expand our horizon to focus on a wide range of problem situations in our social systems. We need to view quality management as involved in every single process and then we can develop ways to improve system performance.

This issue has a mix of articles in both quality and reliability management. We are cognizant of our readers and require articles that could document potential applications and value to the reader. I urge you to consider IJQRM as your first choice in submitting your top papers. You have the responsibility as authors to show that your papers reflect your personality. If you develop high quality papers, your peers will recognize that and you will also be glad you did. Also, another important aspect of scholarship is participating in reviewing others works. I have noticed the declining interests of authors in review papers. The effect of this is that the review process takes longer than expected. We should all make conscientious efforts to review other authors’ works. This way, we keep updated on new research directions that may help improve our future work. We have assembled interesting articles for this issue. Enjoy the articles and I look forward to continue working with you.

Christian N. Madu