Transferable Quality assurance Practices in the World Industry

Abstract

The key issue in quality management is to learn from the mistakes and successes of peer companies: to effectively transfer quality assurance practices that are strongly correlated with commercial success. Experience suggests that although a number of different quality assurance methods and philosophies are in existence (ISO 9000, MBNQA and TQM being the most popular ones), achievements are not correlated with the applied methods, but with the implementation of the method. This paper reviews the available literature of quality assurance transfer and discusses the preliminary results of an international survey undertaken on the topic of international technology transfer of quality assurance, with focus on Hungarian companies that have successfully implemented QA methods based on experiences of their foreign partner companies. Special attention is given to identifying quality related factors in QA programs that are related to successful implementation at a significant statistical level. Short description of the questionnaire and applied statistical methods are discussed in the paper. Methodology: This paper is based on 362 returned questionnaires from companies world wide (of which 47 companies are located in Hungary) and 87 deep follow-up interviews with managers in charge of quality assurance programs. Any information published in this paper will only present this data in aggregate form and will not identify any participating individual or organization.