Human-focused quality management (HFQM) framework towards performance excellence for Malaysian ready-to-wear garment industry

Yusof, Nor Juliana Mohd (2018) Human-focused quality management (HFQM) framework towards performance excellence for Malaysian ready-to-wear garment industry. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Quality remains as an essential attribute for the appraisal of manufactured products in today’s contemporary fast-changing market. The world has witnessed how Quality Management (QM) concepts evolved from a specific departmental area of concern to a system-wide application of total quality or performance excellence. Many manufacturing-based organisations began to pursue the accreditation of international quality standards to be competitive in the global market. In relation to QM implementation, certification to ISO 9001 has been the most prevalent. However, after 30 years of its inception and global acceptation as a QM framework for product compliance, manufacturing companies still struggle to sustain their company’s Quality Management System (QMS). Consequently, this scenario also has affected Ready-to-Wear (RTW) garment industry globally with the presence of Quality Control (QC) issues, involving the companies who manufacture the garments. The current literature reveals that the industry is still lacking knowledge on the fundamental aspects of quality and QM, hence leaving a big gap between the Quality Assurance (QA) systems and the actual QM implementation within the garment companies. Malaysia represents one of the developing economies in the Southeast Asian Region who has a good reputation in supplying RTW apparel for both export and domestic market. Nevertheless, empirical evidence on how QM has been internalised by Malaysia RTW garment manufacturers has not yet been documented. This research examined the level of QM implementation in RTW garment industry and investigated the critical quality issues that hindered the deployment of Total Quality Management (TQM). The final aim of this research is to re-strategise the important QM principles as the core elements in developing a QM framework for an effective implementation of QM in the Malaysia context. The research utilised two sequential phases of data collection and analysis. The first phase of data collection was based primarily on the survey questionnaire to gain a general understanding of QM practices in the Malaysian RTW garment industry. Further investigation was carried out based on interviews mainly with the Head of Department (HOD) at six case-study companies, which represented the three types of Malaysian RTW apparel suppliers. Apart from face-to-face interviews, additional supplementary observations in the production floor as well as revision of documents were also used. The key findings of this research demonstrated that over-reliance to control system quality management is the ultimate reason for an ineffective QM implementation of Malaysian RTW garment manufacturers. Most of the case-study companies were found stagnant at QC and QA stages of QM implementation. Furthermore, the study also confirms the human factors were the main obstacles for the industry to fully adopt ISO-based Quality QMS. A Human-Focus Quality Management (HFQM) framework that gives priorities to the management and utilisation of people as valuable assets in the garment manufacturing sector are therefore developed and proposed. It was conceptualised from the ISO 9001 QM principles which focused on these three aspects: self-directed leadership, an involvement of people and internal customer focus. The research has made a significant contribution to knowledge in expanding the theory of QM by highlighting the future of ISO 9001 QA System as part of company’s international compliance. In addition, this research successfully developed HFQM framework as as a new contribution for Malaysian RTW apparel business towards the successful journey of performance excellence in a labour-intensive manufacturing environment. It is suggested that HFQM framework would bring fundamental changes towards sustaining the quality culture in the Malaysian RTW garment industry. Similar framework could possibly proposed and adopted in other labour-manufacturing companies as a strategy to foster people’s engagement for continual improvement.