TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) PRACTICES OF THE BANGLADESHI AND THAI COMPANIES – A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
By: Dr. Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun & Mr. Nazrul Islam
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
Muhammad Z. Mamun, Professor, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka, Bangladesh did his Bachelor in Civil Engineering, Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management Science, and Ph.D. in Urban Development Management is a Post-doctoral Fellow of Urban Environmental Management Program of the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. With more than 15 years teaching and research experience both at home and abroad, he has specialization in the areas of risk, technology, quality and operations management. Dr. Mamun is a Fellow of the International Center for Asian Studies, Hong Kong, Computer Society of Bangladesh, and Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh. He has a number of international publications in planning and management related areas. He can be reached through email: mzmamun@bangla.net.
ABSTRACT
The comparative analysis of TQM practices between Bangladesh and Thai companies clearly shows planning, implementation and operational differences. Bangladeshi companies portray TQM vision consciousness but in many cases they fall victim of treating TQM as a fad rather than an essential component. The management principles are narrowly viewed, communicated and understood in Bangladeshi companies even with well-documented procedures and instructions. All the Bangladeshi companies concerned are well equipped and successful to some extent in achieving customer satisfaction with regard to product and service quality excellence, but they lack close working relationships, interest groups and the promoting aspect of working environment. Bangladeshi firms make a visible effort in empowerment of quality control circles but apparently follow a comparatively rigid hierarchical structure, but nonetheless are able to assure quality. In terms of organization and distribution, all of the concerned companies are suitably equipped and positioned, but suppliers are not benchmarked with respect to specific criteria and special quality ratings in terms of product attributes and therefore information regarding supplier reliability is not available in any objective form. Bangladeshi firms have much to achieve in the areas of creativity and R&D, and therefore, investment in those areas is imperative.