An evaluation of the effects of quality systems implementation in small manufacturing firms in Botswana

Abstract

Small manufacturing firms (SMFs) in Botswana are increasingly realizing the critical importance of quality in order to become competitive. The 2014/2015 Global Competitive Report ranked Botswana third lowest in terms of local supplier quality in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), beating only Mozambique and Angola. Thus many SMFs are opting to acquire International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards in order to achieve the desired quality in their products and services. SMFs believe that ISO certification provides a spring board for them to implement more robust systems such as total quality management (TQM). The major aim of this research is to evaluate the effects of quality systems on SMFs in Botswana. Literature and empirical objectives were formulated to aid in achieving this goal. Two hundred questionnaires with quality constructs were sent out and 141 were returned and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results showed that the majority of SMFs have acquired ISO standards. The most important reason for ISO certification was to improve business performance which would lead to defect-free production. The most significant indicator of TQM knowledge in SMFs was characterised by the reduction of defects in production. TQM readiness was seen to be hampered mostly by the belief by most SMFs that TQM was too expensive to implement. Independent t-tests for means showed some practically and statistically significant differences between some statistics. Correlation analyses found that relations existed among several constructs of quality. Implications for further research were suggested