Management of supply chain quality

In today's economy, competition is mostly between supply chains rather than between firms (Bhinekawati, 2017). Members of the supply chain must learn about smooth incorporation, production, and growth of company functions in order to remain successful. Conventional quality control practices were and continue to be used in dealing with the majority of these supply chain transformation problems (Kashmanian, 2015). With this context in mind, today's managerial logic is making inroads into the understanding of quality management in the supply chain. Quality control in the supply chain is a procedure-based way of optimizing efficiency by combining supply chain partners (Bhinekawati, 2017). The system maximizes opportunities provided by downstream and upstream connections with the prime objective of generating value and attaining gratification of transitional and final clients.

Positive relationship between Supply Chain Management and Quality Management

Despite the existence of various definitions of quality, merely stated, quality can be explained as fulfilling or surpassing clients_x0092_ expectations. The Society for Quality in America says that quality is a personal phrase for which every sector or individual holds its definition (Lee, 2013). When technically applied, quality can be understood in two ways. One, it is a service or product devoid of inadequacies and two, the features of a service or product, which have the capacity to satisfy implied or stated requirements. Jraisat (2013) asserts that complete quality management is a collection of quality operations aimed at progressively promoting excellence in activities. There are eight major concepts of overall quality (Bhinekawati, 2017). They include; making everybody responsible for quality, initiating natural constant enhancement, aiming at zero defects, prioritizing process over output, focusing on prevention instead of error detection, emphasizing more on objectivity instead of subjectivity, pursuing quality from the source, and defining quality based on the requirements of customers.

The approach of supply management is aimed at combining suppliers, retailers, manufacturers, and distributors to the extent that the production and distribution of goods are done in the proper quantities, at the required time and to the accurate location (Kashmanian, 2015). The process has reciprocal objectives of reducing large system costs and fulfilling customer service needs. Crucial processes of the supply chain comprise product model, dispatch, reinforcement, and supplier-customer associations. Bhinekawati (2017) argues that to thrive in the current environment, managers are required to combine their goals successfully to compete in the ever-changing world_x0092_s economy while prioritizing the last customer as the key to advancements. Supply chains enter into competition depending on time, quality, cost, and responsiveness. Improvements in supply chain involves processes aimed at improving Gantt charts, backward chaining, multi-activity analysis, link charts, process re-engineering, process analysis, service blueprints and flow diagrams among other things. Quality constitutes one of the major elements for organizations in their associations between customers and suppliers. Quality is very crucial that current managers ask whether their organizations should be engaging in world sourcing because the majority of international suppliers do not fulfill quality requirements (Lee, 2013).

Active links between supply chain management and quality management exist (Jraisat, 2013). For instance, improvements in quality management by decreasing process variation, has a direct effect on various measures of supply chain performance. According to Bhinekawati (2017), constant improvement in quality control reduces faults while production and process variations are minimized. Successively, as uniformity within the supply chain is enhanced because of reduction in contrast, cycle times become less while an improvement is noted on on-time delivery. Whereas reduction in variance in the procedures apparently results in the improvement of quality, attention paid to the methods applied during design allows management to change from one product to another quickly. Hence, design for manufacturability results into faster set up periods between products. Faster set-up time enables organizations to decrease sizes of lots because less safety stock is needed. A decline in rework due to minimized faults offers a positive effect on the supply chain because there are fewer cycle times, objectives are met, and there is an improvement in customer response times (Lee, 2013). The use of statistical process controls across the supply chain helps in reducing variation, guarantees quality inputs and decreases work-in-process within the system of the supply chain. Quality from the source, response, and system controls allows quality across the process and hence reduces the time for raw material inspection, in-process checklist, and finalized products (Bhinekawati, 2017).

Conclusion

In Summary, practices of quality management are related to the improvement of supply chain performance. Hence, initiatives and strategic goals for both supply chain management and quality management need to be followed in unison because customers determine the quality initiatives and supply chain management. The major complete quality management operations in process management, customer focus, supplier quality management, human resources management, strategic planning, and leadership form the basis for best practices in supplier quality management . The transformation of the quality management of supply chain will need a change in culture that will not occur overnight. It requires a long period of thinking, assessment of every member_x0092_s high points and shortcomings, advancements in transportation and communication infrastructures as well as an attitude of progressive improvement. Subsequently, organizations that will succeed in the world marketplace will integrate quality management into the supply chain to close the gaps existing in production, design, support, delivery, as well as processes of supplier-consumer relationship. 

References

Bhinekawati, Risa. Corporate Social Responsibility And Sustainable Development. London, Routledge, 2017,.

Jraisat, Luai E., and Ihab H. Sawalha. "Quality Control And Supply Chain Management: A Contextual Perspective And A Case Study." Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol 18, no. 2, 2013, pp. 194-207. Emerald, doi:10.1108/13598541311318827.

Kashmanian, Richard M. "Building A Sustainable Supply Chain: Key Elements." Environmental Quality Management, vol 24, no. 3, 2015, pp. 17-41. Wiley-Blackwell, doi:10.1002/tqem.21393.

Lee, Terry, and Richard M. Kashmanian. "Supply Chain Sustainability: Compliance- And Performance-Based Tools." Environmental Quality Management, vol 22, no. 4, 2013, pp. 1-23. Wiley-Blackwell, doi:10.1002/tqem.21340.

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