Quality management: a survey on accomplished results Available to Purchase

Best practice in quality management has been addressed in a number of publications, but to date, there has been little broad empirical research within the field. This article reports on a study of quality management in 270 Danish enterprises, selected at random at the beginning of 1995. Today, most Danish enterprises work with quality explicitly, and as a result of their efforts, production errors have declined in parallel with customer complaints. However, a number of enterprises lack the capacity to measure directly the benefits realized from quality initiatives. Almost one‐half of the responding enterprises have established an independent quality department, and, correspondingly, these enterprises have derived the highest benefits from their quality efforts. An additional one‐third of the enterprises have become certified, yet these enterprises claim that it has not noticeably affected their competitive power. In general, Danish enterprises do well when it comes to discussing quality issues. In relation to measuring the benefits from their quality efforts, their performance leaves much to be desired. As Danish enterprises have a long‐standing tradition for design and quality work, the results of the survey have wide implications for other organizations faced with the challenge of quality management.