Title: A strategic framework linking quality and productivity

Authors: D.P.S. Arora, D.J. Sumanth

Addresses: Department of Management, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA. ' Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Director, Productivity Research Group (PRG), University of Miami, 269, McArthur Building, Coral Gables, Florida 33124, USA

Abstract: The fact that quality and productivity go hand-in-hand and not against each other has gained much support in the literature. There is a need to develop a conceptual framework that analyses transitions in quality and productivity simultaneously and establishes a rationale to demonstrate their relationship explicitly. Companies keep investing in quality-related activities, in pursuit of excellence to a point that these investments become counter- productive. Such a conceptual framework can help management decision-making in quality-related investments. The primary objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework linking quality and total productivity which can act as a yardstick for management in quality-related decisions. The application of this conceptual framework is demonstrated by a hypothetical example.

Keywords: competitiveness; quality management; quality costs; quality-productivity linkage; total productivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.1992.036516

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 1992 Vol.7 No.4, pp.331 - 347

Published online: 04 Nov 2010 *

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