“Is Quality Ensuring to Get Competitive Advantages in Auto Manufacturing Industries?” —A Study of Volvo Group

Abstract

In today's business world "Total Quality Management" strategy is utmost important for a company in order to survive in the rapidly growing competitive market. It helps a company to increase the level of competence and allows it to compete in the market. To meet expected superior need of customers, Volvo delivers cleaner, safer and smarter transport solutions by concentrating on solutions-based approach since its inception. This core value of Volvo is urging to conduct a qualitative study on quality of Volvo toward attaining competitive advantage. This study attempted to investigate the role of quality management on Volvo's competitiveness through a case study method. While exploring the secondary data, this study found that attributes such as dynamic leadership, positive and ethical corporate culture, customer centric orientation, empowering employees helped Volvo to achieve competitive advantage over its competitor. This study also found that practicing Six Sigma, maintaining quality and ISO standards, and establishing quality council have a positive role in attaining Volvo's operational excellences and in achieving well-functioning society. Volvo's strategy of winning competitive advantage is an example which should be followed by others to achieve competitive advantage in order to be able to sustain in today's highly competitive market and keeping pace with rapid changes.

The Effect of TQM on firm Performance: Empirical Study in Jordanian Private Airlines

“…The above mentioned findings are in conformity with previous studies results (Kumar et al, 2009;Zehir et al, 2012;Prajogo, 2005;Hassan et al ,2012) who found positive and strong association between TQM practices and quality performance, (Hassan et al , 2012;Stock et al, 2000;Huarng & Chen, 2002;Gadenne & Sharma, 2002) they reported positive relationship between TQM implementation and business performance, (Fuentes et al ,2006;Hassan et al, 2012;Brah & Lim, 2006;Feng et al, 2006, Hossain et al, 2017, Rawashdeh, 2014 they found positive impact of TQM applications on organizational performance.…”

“…The respondents were asked to indicate their response to the questions on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The items used in this study were adopted from different studies (Kumar et al, 2009;Zehir et al, 2012;Prajogo, 2005;Hassan et al, 2012) ; Stock et al, 2000;Huarng & Chen, 2002;Gadenne & Sharma, 2002;Fuentes et al ,2006;Brah & Lim, 2006;Feng et al, 2006, Hossain et al, 2017. The instrument was pilot tested using 40 employees from the study population.…”

“…(Hassan et al, 2012;Ali& MIMechE, 2014;Stock et al, 2000;Huarng & Chen, 2002;Gadenne & Sharma, 2002) reported positive relationship between TQM implementation and business performance. (Fuentes et al, 2006;Hassan et al, 2012;Brah & Lim, 2006;Feng et al, 2006, Hossain et al, 2017Rawashdeh, 2014) found positive impact of TQM applications on organizational performance).…”

“…Organizations can improve their competence by implementing total quality management strategy in their business model. The quality management system within the organization can be recognized as the reason for the success or failure of the business (Hossain et al, 2017). According to Zehir et al (2012), total quality management has turned out to be a boundless over several companies during the last two decades as it has been confirmed as a key source of maximizing firms' value in the long run.…”

Reduction of defects in the lapping process of the silicon wafer manufacturing: the Six Sigma application

“…Quality is an elusive and abstract concept (Hossain, Tasnim & Hasan, 2017;Wright, 1997). In a study by Evans and Dean (2002), managers from 86 firms in the United States were asked to define "quality".…”