THE APPLICATION OF BENCHMARKING AND TOTAL QUALITY

MANAGEMENT (TQM) AS TOOLS IN GAINING COMPETITIVE

ADVANTAGE: A STUDY OF MAY AND BAKER PLC AND UNILEVER

NIGERIA PLC

BY

UDEIGWE GODFREY OKECHUKWU

PG/MBA/07/46621

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

ENUGU CAMPUS

NOVEMBER, 2008.

TITLE PAGE

THE APPLICATION OF BENCHAMARKING AND TOTAL QUALITY

MANAGEMENT (TQM) AS TOOLS IN GAINING COMPETITIVE

ADVANTAGE: A STUDY OF MAY AND BAKER PLC AND UNILEVER

NIGERIA PLC.

BY

UDEIGWE, GODFREY OKECHUKWU

(PG/MBA/07/46621)

A PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION (MBA) DEGREE IN MANAGEMENT

TO THE

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, ENUGU CAMPUS

NOVEMBER, 2008.

CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that UDEIGWE, GODFREY OKECHUKWU, a Postgraduate

Student of the Department of Management with Registration Number,

PG/MBA/07/46621 has satisfactory completed the requirement for the

course and research work for the post graduate Degree, Master of Business

Administration (MBA) in Management.

The work embodied in this report is to the best of my knowledge

original and has not been submitted in part or full for any other degree of

this or any other university.

…………………………………………..

Udeigwe, Godfrey Okechukwu

(PG/MBA/07/46621)

----------------------------------- ---------------------------- Chief J.A. Ezeh DR. U.J.F. Ewurum Supervisor Head of Department ----------------------- ---------------------- DATE DATE

DEDICATION

TO HIS MAJESTY, THE GOD OF ALL FLESH, ADONAI.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Alas! The unending journey in search of this Golden Fleece christened

“MBA” started precisely six years ago is today a reality! All Glory be to God

Almighty, the creator of all things for seeing me through. I am highly

indebted to all my lecturers, especially my Supervisor, Chief J.A. Ezeh, for

his fatherly inspiration at every stage of this study.

I humbly acknowledge the work of many scholars in the area of my

study as they formed the bedrock of this treatise. My deep appreciation

goes to my colleagues in the Nigerian Air force especially my staff Officers,

Group Captain US Suleiman, Wing Commander I. Abatan, Flight

Lieutenants J. Rerri, S. Yakubu and a host of others, for their financial

support; my Pastor, Reverend Pastor Emeka Success Nnamani for his

prayers and moral support.

And to the memory of my beloved mummy, Lydia and Daddy, Chris

who are not alive to witness this epoch making event, the rest of my

brothers and sisters, in-laws and well wishers, your contribution to my

upbringing is well acknowledged.

Sister Anichunam, Ebere Cynthia typed the manuscript. For all the

remaining errors, I assume responsibility and would welcome any criticism

which will assist me for a better out put in my future endeavours.

UDEIGWE, GODFREY OKECHUKWU

ENUGU

2008.

ABSTRACT

The Application of Benchmarking and Total Quality Management (TQM) as new technology philosophy is one of the contemporary issues in the mind many management scientists and this is focus of this study. In the past, there was often this confusion in the mind of an average consumer in a developing country like Nigeria regarding the choice of the imported product he preferred, whether it is “the made-in-America” or “the made –in- Japan” especially in the area of electronics. But today, the case is different because he would readily prefer “The made –in- Japan” to “the made-in-America” product. Yet, most of the technologies applied in manufacturing the Japanese products originated in America. The secret behind the Japanese success story is anchored on a common management philosophy which the Japanese called “KAIZEN”, or the Total Quality Management (TQM) and this is the subject of this inquiry. Total Quality Management as a management philosophy is the brainchild of American scholars such as W.E. Deming, Joseph Jorum, Philip Cosby, Armgund and a host of others but it was given a practical relevance by the Japanese. Some attempts have been made to define Total Quality Management (TQM). According to Ramsey and Roberts (1992),” TQM is seen as people focused management system that aims at continual increase in customers’ satisfaction at continually lower real cost.” Also, Ewurum (2001) states that the goals of TQM are to integrate all parts and processes of an organization in order to achieve continuous improvements in quality of goods and services along the line dictated by the customer. TQM aims at attaining a zero-defect products and Services by “doing the right thing first time and every time”. Another powerful tool supporting this study is the concept of Bench marking. Benchmarking, according to Mc George and Palmer (1997), is defined as “a process of continuous improvement based on the comparison of an organization’s processes or products with those identified as best practices. The best practice comparison is used as a means of establishing achievable goals aimed at obtaining organizational Superiority”. Bench marking does not end at comparing ones organization with that of the benchmark, it identifies the gap between its products and those of the benchmark and attempts to bridge this gap through a well planned strategy.

To achieve adequate courage, this project has been divided into five chapters. Chapter one examines the background of the Study, Statement of the study, significance of the study and definition of terms. Chapter two covers general review of related literatures, theoretical frame work of the study, research questions and statement of hypothesis while chapter three discusses research design and methodology, research approach, sources of data, research instruments and method of investigation. Chapter four continued with analysis of data and data presentation while chapter five concludes the research work with summary of major findings, conclusions and recommendations.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In the past, there was often this confusion in the mind of an average

consumer in a developing country like Nigeria regarding the choice of the

imported product he preferred, whether it is “the made-in-America” or “the

made –in- Japan” especially in the area of electronics. But today, the case

is different because he would readily prefer “The made –in- Japan” to “the

made-in-America” product. Yet, most of the technologies applied in

manufacturing the Japanese products originated in America. The secret

behind the Japanese success story is anchored on a common management

philosophy which the Japanese called “KAIZEN”, or the Total Quality

Management (TQM) and this is the subject of this inquiry. Total Quality

Management as a management philosophy is the brainchild of America

scholars such as W.E. Deming, Joseph Jorum, Philip Cosby, Armgund and a

host of others but it was given a practical relevance by the Japanese.

Some attempts have been made to define Total Quality Management

(TQM). According to Ramsey and Roberts (1992),” TQM is seen as people

focused management system that aims at continual increase in customers’

satisfaction at continually lower real cost.”

Also, Ewurum (2001) states that the goals of TQM are to integrate all parts

and processes of an organization in order to achieve continuous

improvements in quality of goods and services along the line dictated by

the customer. TQM aims at attaining a zero-defect products and Services

by “doing the right thing first time and every time”.

Another powerful tool supporting this study is the concept of Bench

marking. Benchmarking, according to Mc George and Palmer (1997), is

defined as “a process of continuous improvement based on the comparison

of an organization’s processes or products with those identified as best

practices. The best practice comparison is used as a means of establishing

achievable goals aimed at obtaining organizational Superiority”. Bench

marking does not end at comparing ones organization with that of the

benchmark, it identifies the gap between its products and those of the

benchmark and attempts to bridge this gap through a well planned

strategy.

1.1.1 THE PROFILE OF MAY AND BAKER NIGERIA PLC.

May and Baker Nigeria PLC Commenced business in 1944 as a

trading company dealing with sales of human pharmaceuticals; laboratory

and photographic chemicals; horticultural and veterinary products. the

company was then incorporated as May and Baker (West Africa), being a

subsidiary of May and Baker Limited, United Kingdom. The company first

settled at 17A Tinubu street Lagos, from where it was relocated to its

present site, 3/5 Sapara street, Industrial Estate, Ikeja, Lagos, where it

built its factory.

With the factory built in 1976, May and Baker commenced local

manufacturing. And it changed its name from May and Baker (West-Africa)

to May and Baker Nigeria Limited the same year. Some of its early

products include Quinnacrinel Anti-malarial); Gonazole (anti-biotic) sonaryl

(sedatives) Ephedrine, Suylphonamides, Nivaquine (anti-malarial) and

Rovaycine (then a veterinary product).

having climbed to pre-eminence on the back of its well-known anti

malarial drugs (The Nivaquine range) and sulphonamides, the company

has since taken leadership position in the biological in the production of

biological (vaccines), onocolgy (cancer drugs), and the Anti-infective drugs;

and it is achieving a steady growth in her share of the Analgesics and anti-

hypertensive drugs market.

The company has undergone some re organization in recent time. In

1992, the company reorganized its business to concentrate on human

pharmaceuticals and human vaccines. Also, in 2001, it diversified into

consumer products with the introduction of lily Table water and in 2006, it

took further leap in the lucrative foods processing business by constructing

an ultra-modern pasta food processing factory in Ota, Ogun State where it

produces Mimmee brand of noodles.

May and Baker Nigeria PLC has Authorized share capital of five

hundred million naira (N500,000,000). It was listed in the Nigerian stock

exchange on November 10, 1994 and has 322 employees on its payroll.

May and Baker Nigeria PLC is 100 percent owned by Nigerians. Its 5-year

turnover results show a steady `rise from N 1.7 Billion in 2003 to N 3.8

Billion in 2007 with a profit after tax of N208.318 million in 2007. The

earning per share stood at 30k in 2007 result.

Nature of Business

May and Baker Nigeria PLC undertakes manufacturing, marketing and

distribution of Human pharmaceuticals, vaccines and sera, medical

diagnostics, food and consumer Health care products. Its range of products

include Lily Table water, Mimmee brand of noodles, Nivaquine (anti-

malarial), Gonazole (anti-biotic), Soneryl (sedative), vaccines, Qncology

(cancer drugs), Easodol (analgesic), 2-2-1 forte brand of chloroquine

sulphate, MalACT brand of Artemisimin combination Therapy (ACT) and

Thiapid.

Research and Development.

In May and Baker, a key objective is to search for and find remedies

for many unresolved local ailment. This is in line with its business

philosophy.

Business Philosophy

In May and Baker, we believe that you ( our customers) are the

reason for our existence and therefore we work hard to meet your needs

by ensuring that we give you Total Quality products.

Mission

To improve the quality of life; through out life, for all lives

Vision

To be among the top ten conglomerates in Nigeria by 2020.

1.1.2 PROFILE OF UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC

Unilever Nigeria Plc was incorporated as lever Brothers Nigeria on the

11th of April, 1923 under the name, Lever Brothers West Africa Ltd. In

1924, the name was changed to the West African Soap Co Ltd, a deliberate

attempt by its parent company, Unilever (Common wealth Holdings) Ltd to

reflect the formers major product and identify its name with its local

market – the British colonies of West Africa. The name was later changed

to Lever Brothers (Nig.) Ltd on 5th December, 1955. The present name,

Unilever Nigeria Plc came into being on 31st May 1973.

The company started with a share capital of N40, 000 wholly owned

and managed by Unilever (Common wealth Holdings) Ltd. In compliance

with Nigeria Enterprises promotion Decree (1972), the company became a

public company on 12th September, 1973 and had its shares listed on the

Nigeria Stock Exchange Market for 40 percent of its shares to Nigerians.

The share structure then became 60 percent to Unilever (Commoncealth

Holdings) Limited and 40 per cent to Nigeria investors. A total of 2,720,

000 of its ordinary share were sold to Nigerians. further implementation of

the Nigeria enterprises promotion decrees of 1977 saw the company

offering 10,200,000 ordinary shares representing 20 percent of the

company’s then equity capital to Nigeria investors, This changed the

company’s share structure to 60 percent for Nigeria investors and 40

percent to Unilever (common wealth holdings) Ltd.

The share capital of the company has risen from N17 million to N100

million at present.

The Company was initially established to serves as the sole distributor of

Unilever soap in the West African Sub-region. While serving this rule, the

company was able to identify a large untapped market capable of

sustaining a plant of economic size, as well as the availability of cheap and

abundant raw material and labour. This offered the advantages of low

production cost and enjoyment of economies of scale through high volume

sales. Hence, the Company established its first factory at Dockyard Road

Apapa, Lagos.

To be able to perform its dual roles of manufacturing and distributorship,

the company appointed some merchant houses as its distributors. Some of

the appointed merchant houses include G.B. Olivant, and John Holt with a

wide trading net work covering the various states of Nigeria.

DIVERSIFICATION

The gains of manufacturing locally with the new plant has been

manifested in the popularity of the key soap brand in Nigeria market and

this has necessitated diversification into the area of Margarine

manufacturing in 1954, toothpaste and toiletries, 1963. By 1971, the

production of squash drinks was added.

Unilever wide range of products include, soapi key and sunlight, Lux,

Astral, Asepso, Detergents: Omo and Surf, Toothpaste:- Pepsodent,

closeup; Edible Oils and Fats; Drunks:- Tree Top and so on.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The world economy has gone through such sophistication in this era

of high technological inventions that organizations are beginning to look for

alternative ways of gaining competitive advantage other than through

technological invention. For instance, in the area of information technology,

Computer manufacturing has passed through phases of Pentiums I, II, III

and IV to Celerium at present, just within a decade such that computers,

manufactured barely five years ago, may become obsolete at present day

usage and this is very worrisome to entrepreneurs, on which way forward.

It is on this hopeless state, that the application of TOTAL Quality

Management (TQM) and Bench marking as a means of gaining competitive

edge becomes relevant and this is the premise of this study.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a managerial philosophy which is

aim at viewing the issue of quality taking the organization as a whole and

not just thinking of high quality of its products alone. In other words, TQM

believes that various units, sections, and departments within an

organization should share the same concept of quality. It is a strategy for

improving business performance through the commitment of all employees,

from top management down to the bottom line in the process of meeting

up with the Customers’ requirements at the lowest overall costs through

continuous improvement of its products and services, business processes

and the people according to Luwaji (1996).

The world economy order has witnessed so many violent changes

that have placed business organization under press are as never before.

Some of these challenges include.

Collapse of time interval for decisions, planning and action as a

result of high information technology witnessed in all time on-line,

real-time and other processing mode.

Tremendous growth in peoples value awareness and value demands;

Collapse in the conventional boundaries of entrepreneurs leaders and

Managers.

The creation of new intersections, overlapping interconnection and

interactions in business area.

Growing internal disrupting and complexities of modern business

functions and structures;

Increased dislocation and collapse of conventional boundaries of

business management.

The increasing growth and dominance of the intangible values over

tangible values as measurement of performance or success;

The dominance of service providing organizations over the markets

with information, communication and knowledge based services. It is

against this background of highly volatile competitive business

environment that firms are forced to look into alternative ways of

gaining competitive advantage. The tool that has been employed by

many organizations today is the application of the Total Quality

Management (TQM) and Benchmarking. This study is saddled with

the responsibility of examining the extent to which TQM and Bench

marking as a management strategy adopted by May and Baker Plc

and Unilever Nigeria Plc has helped them in gaining competitive

advantage in the manufacturing industry in Nigeria.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This Study is aimed at achieving the following objectives:-

To determine the impact of TQM and Benchmarking in sustaining

superior corporate performance by these organizations.

To establish the relationship if any between the resources of May

and Baker Plc, and Unilever Nigeria Plc in creating and sustaining

their respective competitive advantageous positions.

To determine whether the implementation of TQM and

Benchmarking has lead to the corporate leadership role of these

organizations.

To establish whether the continual application of TQM and

Benchmarking will place these organization in top for a forceseable

future.

To determine some of the problems associated with implementing

TQM and Benchmarking

To establish the future benefits if any, associated in application of

TQM and Benchmarking.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of TQM and

Benchmarking implementation on the corporate performance of May and

Baker Nigeria Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc. For this purpose, the following

questions will lead the inquiry and these are:

Has the application of TQM and Benching lead May and Baker

Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc to sustaining superior Corporate

Performance.

Is there and relationship between the resources of May and

Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and creation of sustainable

competitor advantage?

Does the implementation of TQM and Benchmarking by these

corporate organization lead to their corporate leadership in the

manufacturing industry in Nigeria?

Will the continual application of TQM and Benchmarking help to

sustain these organizations on top for a force able future?

Are there problems associated with the implementation of TQM

and Benchmarking by these organizations?

What are the future benefits that will accrue to organizations

employing the use of TQM and Benchmarking?

1.5 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS

HYPOTHESIS ONE

Null Hypothesis (Ho:

The application of TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and

Unilever Nigeria Plc had led to superior corporate performance.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1):

The application of TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and

Unilever Nigeria Plc had led to superior corporate performance.

HYPOTHESIS TWO

Null Hypothesis (HO):

There is no significant relationship between the resources of May and

Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and creation of sustainable competitive

advantage .

Alternative Hypothesis, (H1):

There is a significant relationship between the resources of May and

Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and the creation of a sustainable

competitive advantage.

HYPOTHESIS THREE

Null Hypothesis, (HO):

There is no significant relationship between the implementation of

TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and

their leadership position in the manufacturing industry in Nigeria.

Alternative Hypothesis, (H1):

There is a significant relationship between the implementation of

TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and

their leadership position in the manufacturing industry in Nigeria.

HYPOTHESIS FOUR

Null Hypothesis (HO):

There is no guarantee that the continual application of TQM and

Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc will keep

them on top for a force able future.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1):

There is guarantee that the continual application of TQM AND

Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria

Plc will keep them on top for foreseeable future.

HYPOTHESIS FIVE

Null Hypothesis (HO):

There are no problems associated with implementation of TQM and

Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1):

There are problems associated with the implementation of TQM and

Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study will service as independent appraisal of the

Application of Benchmarking and Total Quality Management (TQM)

as tools in gaining competitive advantage particularly May and Baker

Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc, and also for organizations in competitive

environment in general.

It will also serve as documentation on the performance of key players

in the manufacturing sub-sector of Nigerian economy.

The study as an academic exercise is expected to contribute to

knowledge in the area of this all-important philosophy that has been

applied successfully in advanced world especially in Japan, to gain

superiority in product and service delivery.

Finally, it will serve as guide to researchers in this field of study

in the nearest future and also, as an increase in knowledge to the

general public on the Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy.

1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The research on the benchmarking and Total Quality Management

(TQM) was based on two key players in the manufacturing sub-sector

of the Nigerian economy, May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc

as sample frame for the manufacturing industry. The choice of these

two organizations was based on their accessibility to researcher as

they ever willing to provide the information needed to draw the

research findings.

Some of the constraints which have the limited the researcher

include: scarcity of fund, and the limited time available for this work

to be completed. Equally to mention is the unwillingness of the firms

to disclose what the tempt as security or classified information.

Others are non availability of reliable and timely data on the Nigeria

economy for a comparative study.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

2.1.0 INTRODUCTION.

In discussing the topic, strategy and competitive advantage, Porter

N.E (1985) declared that “a company has competitive advantage whenever

it has an edge over rivals in attracting customers and defending against

competitive forces”. Some of the sources of achieving competitive

advantage may include:-

Having the best made product on the market;

Delivering lower costs than rivals;

Being in a more convenient geographical location;

Achieving proprietary technology;

Feature and styling with more buyer appeal;

shorter lead times in developing and testing new products;

a well known brand name and reputation; and

Providing buyers more value for the more (a combination of good

quality, good service, and acceptable price. Michael E. porter

declared that for a company to succeed in building a competitive

advantage, the company’s strategy must aim at providing buyers with

what they perceive as superior value- a good product at a lower price

or a better product that is worth paying more for.

Many corporate organizations adopt different strategies to

achieve or defend a competitive advantage. The study of application of

total quality management and Benchmarking as the most powerful tools

of gaining competitive advantage in this modern era is the focus of this

chapter.

2.1.1 THE FIVE GENERIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES

A company’s competitive strategy consists of the business

approaches and initiatives that, it adopts in attracting customers, dosing

off competitive pressures, and in strengthening of its position in the

market. The aim is to defeat rival companies ethically, and honourably

earn a competitive advantage in the market place, and cultivate a

clientele of loyal customers. Often, the company adopt both offensive

and defensive actions, with emphasis shifting from one to the other

depending on the market conditions in place for a specified period. a

company’s competitive strategy may include short-lived tactical

manoeuvres designed to deal with immediate conditions, as well as

calculated to have lasting impact on the firm’s long-term competitive

capabilities, and market position.

The five generic competitive strategies include:-

1. A low-cost leadership strategy: This is striving to be the overall low

cost provider a product or service that appeals to wide range of

customers;

2. A broad differentiation strategy:- This is seeking to differentiate the

company’s product offering from the rivals’ in ways that will appeal to

a board range of buyers.

3. A best-cost provider strategy:- This seeks to give customers more

value for the money by combining an emphasis on low-cost with an

emphasis on upscale differentiation. The target is to have the best

(lowest) costs and prices relative to producers of products with

comparable quality and features.

4. A focused or market niche strategy based on lower cost:- This is

concentrating one narrower buyer segment and competing rivals on

the basis of lower cost.

5. A focused or market niche strategy based on differentiation:- This is

offering niche members a product or service customized to their

tastes and requirements.

The above strategies can be illustrated below as

Thus:-

TYPE OF COMPETITIVE

Advantage Being Pursued

MA

RK

ET

TA

RG

ET

Overall low

cost leadership

strategy

Broad

differentiate

strategy

Best Cost

Provider Strategy

Focused

differentiation

strategy

Focused

Low-cost

Strategy

A broad range

of buyers

market wide

A particular

buyer segment

or market niche

2.1.2 BASIC OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is founded on a number of basic

and extremely important concepts. The main features of Total Quality

Management (TQM) are:

a) Customer Orientation:

Total Quality embraces more than the external customer. it recognizes that

everyone in a business provides a service. Some services are provided to

external customers and others to internal customers. If the needs of the

external customers are not met he is likely to take his business elsewhere.

A survey of some European companies revealed that of every 100

dissatisfied customers;

- 96 percent will not complain

- 90 percent of them will not return in the future

- One unhappy customer will tell nine others.

On the other hand if the needs of an internal customer are not met he may

not be able to meet or continue to meet the needs of the external

customers especially if he is a frontline employee. Either way the business

looses. In total quality organizations, everyone strives to meet the needs of

their customers (internal and external) and then to improve continually, the

efficiency and effectiveness of the services provided. A fundamental

requirement of Total Quality Management (TQM) is the commitment of top

management and a business strategy, which is oriented towards customer

satisfaction.

b) Total Involvement

In non-total quality organizations, quality is regarded as the responsibility

of only Managers, Supervisors or the quality control departments. Total

quality involves everyone and every activity. All employees make a

commitment to getting things right first time, every time-in total quality

companies everyone is committed to quality and understands what is

expected of them. Every department tries to meet the needs of their

customer-the next link in the chain.

c. Continuous Improvement

Everyone has to do things better tomorrow than yesterday and be

committed to prevent rather than detect problem. It means developing a

culture of innovativeness, empowerment and problem solving.

Improvement is not possible or meaningful without measurement and

bench marking, without baselines against the organization can chart its

progress. Deciding what to measure should be influenced by customer

requirements.

d) Teamwork

If total management involves everyone it is logical to expect people to

work together as a team. Teamwork is based on synergy, 2+2 =5. It is

intended to capture a very large number of idea from them implementation

and they consequently see improvements happening quickly.

e) Audit of Processes

Experience and research show that in many companies between 209 and

40 percent of all activities are wasted in resolving problems of fixing their

effects, fire fighting, checking for errors and redoing work. While people

will occasionally make mistakes, the majority occurs because the process

has failed. It is a basic objective of Total Quality Management (TQM) to

design processes that make it difficult for people to make mistakes. This

involves understanding how processes operate, what systems are used,

who does what, when decisions are made.

f) Cost of Quality

The cost quality represents the amount of time and effort that an

organization spends ensuring that products and services are defect-free or

are of high quality, it also refers to what it costs of lost opportunities.

g) Cost of Prevention

This is the cost of all activities undertaken to prevent defects in design and

development, purchasing, labour and all other aspects of beginning,

creating, introducing and selling a product or service.

Examples of cost prevention are:

Time spent on planning activities

Supplier evaluation

Specifications and their review

Process capability studies

Operation training

Preventive maintenance

TQM education programmes

h) Cost of Appraisal

These are costs associated with inspecting, testing and evaluating the

product or service while it is made or before it reaches the customer to

ensure that it conforms to customer. Requirements will include

specifications from customers. Engineering documents, marketing and

other documents that provides information on the right procedures and

processes. Examples of cost of appraisal are:

Prototype inspection and test

Supplier surveillance

Receiving inspection and test

Packaging inspection

Status measurements and reporting

Proof reading memos

i) Cost of Failure

These are the costs of getting it wrong the first time and therefore of

having to repeat it. They are costs that are associated with things that

have been found not to conform to requirements/specifications as well as

the evaluation, disposal and consumer affairs or complaints handling

aspects of such failures.

These costs include all materials and labour involved in all rework. A cost

can also be included for lost customer credibility.

Examples are:

Consumer affairs

Redesign

Engineering change order

Purchasing change order

Corrective action costs

Soap and rejects

Emergency purchases.

j) Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) ensures that quality dimensions,

which are important to the customer re, designed into a product or service

an inception and maintained throughout its life cycle.

2.1.3 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF TQM

Structures are necessary tools in organization, structures aid in the

achievement of goals in organizations. They define roles and activities of

employees in an organization. Besides, structure dictates the

communication patterns in every organization.

Structures however have a role to play in the management of TQM in

business organizations. Eugene (1996), stated that there is need for

structures such as the quality council, steering committee, quality

improvement teams, and facilitators at the introduction and development

stages of TQM structure. Certain factors must be examined. Onausi (1997)

outline two basic factors which are:-

1. The TQM organizational structure should mirror and not supercede

the existing organization.

2. All TQM actions are facilitating and should be designed to assist

the normal organization in taking improvement actions. Different

organization adopts different structures. However, for this

purpose, I recommend the structure designed by Onausi (1977).

Fig. 1

SOURCE: Seye Onausi (1997) Getting the TQM Bell Rolling; the Guardian

News paper (Lagos) Tuesday, March 20. The TQM organization-show

committees, TQM co-ordinators. From the diagram above, the process of

installing TQM team (Any member of the staff) this team meet separately

to focus on the process of change. The black dots also provide support for

MANAGEMENT

COMMITTEE

DTL

G

DTC

G

DEPARTMENTAL

TEAM LEADER

GROUPS

DIVISIONAL MANAGEMENT

TQM

TEAM Facilitators

the process. A central co-ordinator for quality may also chair a meeting of

facilities from time to time. It is the responsibilities of the management

committee and quality steering committee to plan and design the systems

and tools conclusively. TQM organization is not responsible for quality or

quality improvement. It is responsible for managing a facilitative process, a

process that will assist managers and people to take ownership of quality,

and more importantly, a process in grained in each individual.

2.1.4 THE CORE CONCEPT OF TQM

Akpeiyi (1996 p. 5) identifies the following core concepts that are behind

TQM.

1. Achieve quality in everything. People, process and product/service.

2. Do the right thing first every time.

3. Continuously strive for improvement

4. Have visceral commitment and discussion for customers who are

both internal and external.

5. Strengthen the supplier – customer chain.

6. Managers business through team building and teamwork.

7. Flatten hierarchies and have suitable structure.

8. Reduce cost of bad quality by investing substantially in cost of good

quality.

9. Use structured process when solving business problems, which

should be talked proactively.

10. Use total quality tools to general hard facts to Manager business

rather than depend on opinions or whims.

11. Provide quality leadership and motivation to enable all employee

committee to the total quality process.

2.2.0 TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT FOCUS/DRIVERS

The key main drivers of TQM are:

1. Integration

2. Continuous improvement

3. Customer focus

Integration: This is an attempt by the organization to achieve uniform

concept of quality across the whole organization and attain harmonious

inter-dependence and co-operation amongst its various submits and

components. This will help eliminate the dysfunctions associated with

inbreeding, competition and rivalry that occur where empire building and

independent operation of various units.

To achieve integration, TQM proposes the following;

Process thinking and management

Employee involvement

Cross-functional team

Brainstorming

Training and Development

The inverted pyramid

Improvement

This is the belief that no system is beyond improvement. It therefore,

suggests that better ways of doing a particular thing should be evolved.

(KAIZEN) This improvement could be innovative involving large dramatic

changes of small incremental changes.

Customer Focus

Customer as defined by TQM is these people who have the benefit of the

works, activity of actions of another (Mc George and Palmar Kan in

Ewurum 1997). TQM recognizes two set of customer is viz internal

customers and external customer.

External customers are those who benefit from the end products of

the organization. These are the people who are regarded as the true

customer in the traditional sense: TQM however, proposes that internal

customers should be treated carefully just as the external customers or

even better. This is because their services will impact greatly on the

output, which will dictate the eventual satisfaction of the external

customers. In this case, the saying that you should treat employees the

same way you want them to treat customers apply.

2.2.1 WHY TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

Joining the Total Quality Management (TQM) train is in the interest of

organizations no matter how they now perceive the performance of their

organizations. Total Quality Management (TQM) is one sure recipe that will

prevent them from becoming obsolete in the business world, this because

with Total Quality Management (TQM) you can count on four facts

a) Customers expect sharply higher levels of service quality

b) Some of the competitors are already working flat out (or getting

ready) to entice the organization’s present customers with higher

perceived value.

c) to the victor goes the spoil.

d) No matter where you currently sit in your industry, if your

organization does not have an aggressive plan to dramatically

improve the service/quality levels, you are already behind and in

serious trouble. You may well be on the way to becoming victims

of the service quality revolution as you cling to the old

management order.

2.2.2 ACHIEVE QUALITY IN EVERY THING

PEOPLE, PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS/SERVICE:

According to Akpeiyi, (1996) p.5) the word total in this

management tool (TQM) underscores the fact that focus of any

organization that aspires to be quality organization must be to achieve a

corporate culture of qualities in everything, it ha or does it people

processes, and products/services. Achieving quality in people call for

quality in recruitment and selection; quality in orientation; quality in

appraisals; quality in promotion and rewards; and quality in human

resources development and management. It also calls quality leadership at

all levels of the organization that can motivate their followers to peek

performance through creating room for innovativeness, inspiring shared

vision and empowerment.

Attaining quality in process means all business process of

administration, information, finance, audit, strategic planning, reception,

telephoning sales, marketing etc. must be capable of delivering to the

customer the right product and service right first time every time at the

lowest overall cost.

A quality products/services (the outcome of any process) is that

which fully meets the customer’s need and expectations.

Therefore, for any organization to be perceived and acknowledge as

a quality organization, it must achieve quality in the three components of

people processes, and product/services. Organization that employs the

TQM tool to achieve excellence will invest always on the necessary time

effort to achieve excellence in their people, excellence in all activities of

their business and excellence in the products and services.

2.2.3 DO THE RIGH THING RIGHT, FIRST TIME AND EVERY THING

TIME

When TQM has become the culture of an organization, the employees in

the organization right things (Akpeiyi 1996 p.6). It is a challenge for an

organization to stop mindless operation. If you are going to produce

quality, you are not allowed to have repetition.

The right things are judge strictly from the perspective of the

customers, and thus only activities that have customers and help to satisfy

the requirements of their customer are considered acceptable this culture

of always determining who the customer for an activity or product or

service is, institutionalized in total quality organization, it will would not

expand its energy and useless activities that can not more it business

forward. Leonard Berry et al, point out this serviced quality. When

management fails to understand customers’ desire for the service, a chain

reaction is likely to follow the wrong type of performance measurements,

the wrong advertising, and so forth. It is though enough to satisfy

customer desire without the added burden of not really knowing what

desires to satisfy.

Having identified the right thing to do, a structured process is used to

ensure that all associated activities are correctly performed, and done right

so that out put (product or service) meets the customer’s requirements

first time and every time by first determining what is the right thing to do,

and doing it rights first time and every time. The TQM tool ensures that

money, time and energy are not expended on correcting error, scrapping

out or re-works.

it is patently obvious, therefore that organization where doing the

right thing right first time every time becomes a culture, substantial

reduction in operating cost and the concomitant effect of high profitability

are the reward. Faithfully adherence and missionary commitment to a

Quality Delivery Process (QDP) is the secret of TQM Organizations. The

quality delivery process (QDP) require every work (from the top

management work group to the work group at the lowest level of the

organization’s hierarchy) to define their mission in business, determine

their outputs and ensure harmony between output and mission, identify

customers for each output, determine customer requirements for each

output, develop specifications for each output, that satisfy the customers

requirements.

Tools used in TQM Process

TQM is philosophy that is aimed at achieving quality in all its ramifications

of a business. Osunaiji: (1996) in his paper Quality Improvement

Techniques, presented at a seminar points to seven (7) tools used in the

TQM process. He further explains that these tools were used by Japanses

and they formed the secrets of their success.

These tools include:

1. Bench marking

2. Brain storming

3. Histogram

4. Check sheets

5. Pareto Diagram

6. Flow Diagram/charts

7. Cause and Effect Analysis

Benchmarking

This is a continuous process of measuring an organization’s products,

operations and services against those of its competitors. It will establish

targets, priorities, and operations leading to competitive advantage. This

concept (Benchmarking) is based on the ancient Japanese quotation. If you

know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result if a

hundred battles. This measures means striving for the best of the best

practices, those that will lead to superior performance, through measuring

performance, continuous implementing change and emulating the best.

Brainstorming

This is a technique used to generate a large number of ideas quickly,. and

may be used in a variety of situation. Each member of a group in turn, may

be invited to put formed ideas concerning a problem under consideration.

Histogram

This is a technique used to display both attribute and variable data and are

an effective means of letting people who operate a process know the

results of their efforts.

Check Sheets

This is a tool for data gathering, and a logical point to start in most process

control or problem solving efforts. It is particularly useful for recording

direct than opinions about the process.

Pareto Diagram

This measure is used to analyze data to identify the major problems. It is

also used to analyze errors on invoices to customers and industry injury

data.

Flow Chart

The use of this technique ensures a full understanding of the input and

flow of the process. Flow chart/diagram show what people actually do, how

material is handed, how equipment is used, and information flow and lead

to common sense suggestions for waste elimination.

Cause and Effect Analysis

This measures the input that effect quality and identify the possible effect

in the process.

2.2.4 KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TQM STRATEGY

It is obvious, and perhaps relevant to this study, to point out the basic

characteristics of TQM.

According to Akpeiyi 1996, these includes the following:

1. The market in principle “market-in” is major perspective in quality

improvement activities. This involves informing a broad range of

employees how customers use products and services.

2. And educating as many employees as possible on customer desired

product and service features.

3. All-employee, all-development involvement TQM companies have

extended the concept of quality improvement to include business

process. This broadening the scope of participation to include all

staff and department. All staff involvement men that all employees

individually and in teams are trained to engaged in designed and

redesigning their own work processes.

4. Quality’s relationship to costs and productivity. TQM companies

(especially large firms) have seen improved quality as flowing

from elimination of waste and rework in every business process.

This may contrast with the traditional American view of improve

quality as adding more product attributes and or additional

inspectors, thereby leading to added cost.

5. Quality as a silent theme. It is hard to find anyone in an organization

that is against quality, but cost reduction and productivity

improvement often evoke fear of displacement. Conversely, quality

is positive, unifying and constructive.

6. Problem-solving methodology that is usable by workers with

moderate and higher level of education. The methodology is

backed up with training in a variety of problem-solving tools,

including the pareto and cause-and-effect diagrams. Simplify

statistical tools have become widely used among workers in

departments in effective TQM organization.

2.2.5 COMMON ELEMENTS OF TQM

(Akpeiyi 1996) identified the following as the common element of TQM:

Top management commitment and leadership “Quality is made in the

board room, and that in a TQM environment, all employee must strive to:

1) Do the right thing

Do thing right

Do things right

Do things right first time

Do things right, first time, every time

2) Employee involvement and teamwork

3) Customer orientation

- Internal

- External

4) Prevention system not defection-performance standard zero

defect.

5) Quality system management

a) Documentation to ensure consistency for even product or service

b) Procedure to ensure that every product or service pass through

certain recommended system

6) Cost of quality measurements (COQM) – prevention costs, appraisal

cost, and failure costs.

It is against this background that we need to identify the cost associated

with TQM. However, the cost of achieving these goals must be carefully

organization is desirable one.

These costs are a true measure of the quality effort:

1) Prevention Costs

These are costs associated with the design, implementation and

maintenance of the total quality management system. Prevention costs

include:

a) Quality planning: The creation of quality, reliability, and operational,

production, supervision, process control, inspection and other

special plans, etc.

b) Quality Assurance: The creation and maintenance of the quality

system

c) Inspection equipment for use in inspection work.

d) Training Cost: The development, preparation and maintenance of

training programmes for operators, supervisors, staff, and

managers both to achieve and maintain capability.

e) Miscellaneous: Clerical, travel, supply, shipping, communications and

other general office management activities associated with quality.

The resource devoted to prevention give rise to the costs of doing it right

the first time.

2. Appraisal Cost

These costs are associated with the supplier’s and customer’s evaluation of

purchased materials, processes, intermediates, products and service to

assure conformance with the specified – requirements. Appraisal includes:

a) Verification: Checking of incoming material, process set–up, first-off,

running processes, intermediates and final products, services

including product or service performance appraisal against agreed

specifications.

b) Vendor Rating: The assessment and approval of all suppliers, of both

products and services. Appraisal activities result in the costs of

checking it is right.

3 ) Failure Costs

Failure costs can be further split into those resulting from internal and

external failure.

i) Internal Failure Costs: These costs occur when the results of work

fail takes place: Internal failure includes the following:

a) Waste: The activities associated with doing unnecessary work or

holding stocks as the result of errors poor organization, poor

communications, the wrong materials, etc.

b) Scrap: Defective products material or stationery that cannot be

repaired, used or sold.

c) Re-Injection: The re-examination of products or work that have been

rectified.

e) Downgrading: A product that is usable but does not meet

specifications may be downgrade and sold as “second quality” at lower

price.

f) Failure Analysis: The activity required establishing the causes of

internal products or services failure.

ii) External Failure Costs

These costs occur when products or service fail to reach design quality

standards but are not detected until after transfer to the consumer.

External failure includes:

a) Repair and Servicing: Either of retuned product or those in the field.

b) Warranty Claims: Failure products that are placed or services re-

performed under some from of guarantee.

c) Complaints: All work and costs associated with handling and serving

of customer’s complains

d) Return: The handling and investigation of rejected or recalled product

or materials, including transport costs.

e) Loss of Goodwill: The impact on reputation and image, which

impinges directly on future prospects for sales.

External and Internal Failure produce the costs of getting it wrong. Order

re-entry, retyping, unnecessary travel and telephone calls, conflicts, are

just a few examples of the wastage of failure costs often excluded. Even

organization must be aware of the costs of getting it wrong and

management needs to obtain some idea how much failure is costing each

year.

Figure (2.5): Quality awareness and improvement.

Failure

Appraisal

Prevention

Total Quality

Related Costs

Source: British standard 1992 1 pg.24.

The relationship between the quality related costs of prevention, appraisal,

and failure and increasing quality awareness and improvement in the

organization shown in figure (2.5) where the quality awareness is low, the

total quality related costs are high, the failure costs predominating.

2.2.6 TQM PERSPECTIVE OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership is the sum of activities by which a hierarchical superior

voluntarily influences the behaviour of the subordinate in such a way as to

efficiently achieve the organizational objectives (Awujo 1997): (Glueck

1997) sees leadership as basic ingredients in all aspects of organizational

activities. Johnie (1993) defines leadership as the process of directing and

influencing the work related activities of group members.

Leadership is a goal directed actively that must be performed by

managers of organizations. The new philosophy of TQM in organizations

had the view that leadership is a critical factor in the success of TQM

implementation Okolie (1996) leaders must change or transform the

organizations to needs of TQM. Accordingly Dean and Bowen (1994)

argued than total quality and transformational leadership stress the

communication and reinforcement of values and the articulation and

implementation of a vision. Total quality entails alighting of organizational

members with quality values of customer’s focus, continuous improvement

and teamwork.

The theory of transactional leadership however does not apply to total

quality from senior leadership point of view. Total quality has a wide

perceptive of organizations than transactional leadership that focus on

work group levels. Conversely down the hierarchy of the organization

structure, the important of leadership decreases. This is as because total

quality emphasis training and organizational formalization.

Nonetheless, for TQM to lead to customer satisfaction, it is important

that management must improve all aspects of its operations including

customer relations, staff development, compensation, motivation and

recognition, product development, manufacturing processes, credit systems

and all aspects of communication. Management should also effectively and

deliberately encourage creativity, meaningful suggestions, all form, of

feedback including complaints and involve all employees in decisions that

aimed at improving quality. All these will however be possible through the

use of the dynamic leadership approach.

2.3 THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN TQM IMPLEMENTATION

Basically, leadership is known for initiation and implementation of policies

and programmes for the survival of firms. Leaders are dynamic in their

approach to handling organizational activities aimed at achieving the goals

of firm as Leaders are well direct on the firm’s activities. Glueck (1997)

argued the importance of leadership as dynamic function for organizations.

Indeed leaders have a significant role to play in total quality management

implementation. Any new philosophy, culture or orientation must be

handled out in the long run. Paul E.O. Neil (1990) argued that any change

in an organizational culture requires that each organizational group learn

the behaviour norms, values and basic assumptions of the new culture. It

is particularly critical for members of management to learn all facts of the

new culture effectively and efficiently. Management is the one group that

must buy into the need for a culture change actually go through the culture

change, and lead the change efforts of all other groups in the organization.

According to Onanusi (1997) asserted that TQM does require a profound

level of change in the behaviour of management. Managers will not

changes the attitude of employees without changing themselves.

Both management and employees must change to unlock their combined

potential for the ultimate success of the organization. In the same vein,

leaders must implant the philosophy TQM into the organization and also

ensure that the decisions on the implementation of TQM are carried out

throughout the corporation, and then help people to carry them out

through the provision of all needed resources. Leaders must show a great

deal of commitment and also plan and design the process of TQM

implementation in their organization. From the above, leaders have

important role to play in the success of TQM implementation in

organizations.

2.4.1 IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN

NIGERIA:

Total quality management as a management philosophy originated many

year ago in Japan. TQM is however a new concept in Nigeria despite its

long history.

Okolie (1996) said that the implementation of TQM is relatively recent in

Nigeria. He further stated that the first taught in Lagos Business School in

April, 1992. And ever since, the subject have gotten much attention in the

business circles, as some companies have started implementing the

programmes while other are planning to do so.

He further asserted that in order to assist companies ensure that their

TQM programmes succeed, the guideline of programmes implementation

need to be followed.This is because TQM usually fails if there has not been

a well-articulated programme for putting it in practice.

According to Okolie (1997), the first problem a company faces when

decision has been made to implement TQM is which model to adopt. This

arises from the fact that the literature is full with different approaches of

implementing TQM by various “gurus”. As a general rule, which ever model

chosen, must be tailored to suit the company size, age, operation,

corporate values and culture and these should be considered before

choosing any model. It is advisable to adopt the TQM approach that best fit

a company’s situation. For examples, a highly technical company

employing many Engineers may find Jurans approach far more appealing

than the idealistic approach by Deming. A firm with a history of

organizational development may find Crosby organizational stage model

culturally more comfortable, while a company where quality awareness will

be a particularly difficult changing could adopt elements of Crosby and

Deming approaches which have strong awareness building focus.

Code line for programme implementation includes:-

a) Top management commitment and leadship

b) Impetus for change

c) Training (All staff in the organization)

d) Programme design

e) Programme implantation

f) Reward and recognition

g) Performance measuremen

h) Resistance to TQM programme

i) Programme goals

Top Level Management Commitment and Leadership

This is an essential requirement of the programme without which the

implementation cannot succeed. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the

company and his senior managers must not only give commitment to the

programme, but must lead in what to do. They must have good

understanding of the principles of TQM and the benefit to the derived

through implementing the programme. The knowledge can be obtained

through reading or by attending TQM awareness seminars.

Impetus for Change: Having gained adequate knowledge about TQM

and being convinced about its benefits, the Chief Executive Officer and the

Senior Executive Officers have the responsibility of answering the question:

Why do we want to change the way we are doing things in the company?

Impetus for change can be internal (Low profitability, high cost, lack of

quality culture, etc) or external (stiff Competition, poor customer service).

The answer to this question is crucial in setting the programme goals and

must be provided.

Programme Goals:

With the impetus for change Clear, the top management now proceed to

defined the goals of the programme. That is, what is the TQM programme

aimed at achieving? Many TQM initiatives fail because companies have no

clear goals and as such cannot obtain measurable benefits as the

programme progress. Once the goal has chosen, it becomes easy to set

performance measures to monitor improvement.

Trainings: Training is an essential requirement of the TQM

implementation programme. TQM awareness training will be giving to all

staff in the organisation. The aim the awareness training will be to bring

out the principles of TQM, the benefit, and the organisation’s reasons for

adopting the programme.

programme Design:

It is usually advisable to implement TQM principle in phases, starting

initially with Quality Improvement Teams (QIT) and expanding later to

value Analysis (VA), Quality Policy Development (QPD) and finally to

Quality in Daily Work (QDW). This phase approach allow for better

understanding in the organization.

Programme Implementation

For a successful implementation of TQM, there must be a structure for the

management of the programme. It is advisable to incorporate the

management of TQM into the organizational structure of the university.

Reward and Recognition

As part of the employee buy-in policy, it is usual to establish a reward and

recognition system aimed at showing gratitude to employees that have

made outstanding contributions continuous improvement programme.

Some firm adopt rewards such as free medical expenses, free furniture,

refurbishing loan with 10% discount, free course, training, seminars, while

other emphasize more on recognizing employee. Organisation must

therefore adopt a system that best suits their corporate culture, values,

and employees expectations.

Performance Measurement

The successful implementation of the quality improvement process is

usually based on the practice of “Management by Measurement”. This is

carried out by first establishing performance measurements or standard

that is correlated to the desire and result and by regularly reviewing the

actual measurement.

Resistance to TQM Programme

The central principles of TQM to challenge a long- held set of management

beliefs and practices and will not, therefore, be quickly accepted by all the

employees in any university. Resistance to change is inevitable, but it

needs not bed a barrier. Experience has shown that even in universities

where there is clear commitment and leadership of the TQM programme by

the top management resistance does occur from the middle management

or the junior workers (Eugene 1996) with adequate education and

incentives, the initial resistance is usually broken.

The most effective way to introduce change is to identify the reason why

people resist change.

The cost common reasons for the resistance change include:

(Nwachukwu (1988):

1) Training and environment

2) Habit

3) Fear of the unknown

4) Personal attitude

5) Financial reasons

6) Psychological reasons

How to introduce change (Nwachukwu 1988). Change is not something to

be introduced very regularly. There is to be felt need before a real

organization change is embarked upon. The following conditions are

necessary:-

1. Communication

2. The change must be useful

3. Empathic consideration

4. Employee participation

5. Timing

6. Change should be gradual

7. Give positive reinforcement

One of the most effective ways of initiating changes and obtaining

complete acceptance, is to show the employees what is in there for them.

Once an organization has decided complement a change, the following

steps are suggested to aid in carrying it out. There are most expeditious

ways of carrying it out.

1) Empirical-Rational

2) Normative-Re-educative

3) Application of Power.

Okolie (1996) equally opines that, there is no one “best way to implement

TQM. A structural approach where the top management must carefully

match their unique organizational environment to a customize TQM

programme, is the recommended rout. It is usually difficult for firms to

implement TQM without the guidance of quality expert. He equally stated (

in his study on TQM implementation in Nigeria) that the current position

TQM implementation in Nigeria is encouraging considering the fact that it is

relatively new in the country.

Although Uba (1997) admitted that the potential of TQM is yet to be

harnessed for the achievement of corporate goals and national visionary.

One of the reasons for the above is placed on the level of managerial

commitment to this new philosophy.

2.3.1 USING TQM AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CHANGE:

Okolie (1996) in his paper presented at the seminar, stated that TQM

change must start from top to bottom and must ensure zero defect. We

should not accept failure and faults in our system but to find solution

anytime it occurred. Employee’s empowerment, employee must also be

taken as owner of the business so that they could contribute to the success

of the organization and have a belief that if it failed he/she would be out of

job. He further stated that TQM demanded leadership be example and

could not be implemented by one person. Management must take

employees as their customer moving them and giving what they need.

TQM is based at prevention, aim at zero defect and constant drive to

reduce waste. Focus on identification of internal and external customer and

how best satisfy them.

It is against this background that he listed the culture in TQM, which are

had to build.

a) Quality awareness in all and not to be delegated

b) Organization must choose standards in what they are doing.

c) Organization should in themselves promote quality and the Chief

Executive must lead the quality movement.

d) We must go and meet the customers to find out what they want.

e) Quality must be continuous achieve high standard.

f) There must be inter-units goals and management reward on

recognition system, which leads to healthy completion.

2.4 BENEFITS OF TQM IN ORGANIZATION

TQM has being gaining significant development of corporate organization in

recent times. TQM has lead to the growth and development of Japanese

companies in particular and the world in general. According to Nnedu

(1996) the successful implementation of TQM can transform transactions

into relations, products into services centralized management into

decentralize management, individual performance into team work, in word

focused management into outward (customer) focused management, slow

to change administration to quick to change administration.

According to Oakland (1993), the benefits accruing to the successful

implementation of TQM in an organization can be measured on a number

of dimensions:

1) Stakeholders (business measure) increased market share/reduce

loss in market share increase profit.

2) Customers, more contact with and recognition by external

customers, increase in customer relations, better understanding of

their requirements reduce complaints, lost orders, better claims,

good-will, etc

3) Output/product/services: increase in productivity/performance less

defects, errors, returns, repair (costs).

4) Suppliers: Better liason and partnership with external suppliers.

They have better understanding of requirements and cause less problem.

Reduction in total costs of dealing with suppliers.

5) Inputs: Fewer returns to suppliers, defects errors.

6) Inside organization clears leadership

7) Clearer strategy and development improvement in internal process.

a) Reduction in scrap, reworks, time, etc.

b) Better understanding of process

c) Better internal communications

d) More rapid innovation-greater scope

e) Better/quicker decisions, base on teamwork.

f) More productive/smoother operations and systems

g) Better scheduling of resources

h) Better conditions.

8) People: Happier/more contented or fulfilled staff. Improved “industrial

relations” moral/ attitudes. Release of employee energy into the business

more participation from people in all process, including innovation.

More term work and facilitation of management of change. Chukwuigwe

(1997) also presented the benefit of TQM in flowchart diagram as it relate

to increase in profitability

It is against this background that we can now say that TQM is a vital

philosophy that should be implemented in all organization, in present

times.

IMPROVED QUALITY

IMPROVED REPUTATION

HIGHER PRICE MARKET MORE MARKET SHARE

INCREASED PROFITABILITY

PREVENTING PROBLEMS REDUCE DEFECT

LOWER MANUFACTURING COST LOWER SERVICE COST

INCREASE PROFITABILITY

Despite the above-mentioned benefits of implementing TQM in

organization, this concept, if fully implemented. Would face some short

comings (Olian and Ryles 1991).

1) Quality improvement will obviously lead to increase in the price of

product/service.

2) It is hard work, takes a long time, needs to be driven by the

strategy through the whole business, relies on top and middle

management commitment, and enthusiastic practical champions.

3) Quality improvement programme is expensive to monitor to bring

success as soon as possible.

4) It will lead to high administrative costs because of additional

training and allocation of resources.

According to Onodugo Ezeh 920020, the following benefits are derivable

from the concepts of TQM:

i) Waste Minimization: It can be seen the concept proposes zero-

defect as a way of cost minimization.

ii) Retention of Loyalty: Ostensibly, TQM is driver by customer

satisfaction. The inevitable aftermath is that they will retain

even add more, to their market size or oriental profile,

iii) The practice of QTM fosters the spirit of togetherness and

unity

iv) The kaizen philosophy, which under the line of practice of

TQM will engender booster in technological advancement.

v) It help organization members to see organization from

holistic perspective and thus minimize the dysfunction

associated with departmental rivalry and empire building.

MAJOR OBJECTIVES OF TQM IN THE NIGERIAN CONTEXT

According to E.U.L Imaga (2000 p. 193), the objectives of TQM in the

Nigerian context are:

- To encourage good product(s) and services quality

consistency in both production and service industries of

the economy.

- To orientate employees’ attitude through total quality

management training and on-the job work-study

improvement in the areas of corporate management

and corporate planning.

- To reduce drastically production material cost, staff time

losses, overlap of job descriptions, inefficient controls

and inefficient supervisory techniques.

Key contributions of TQM to the Nation’s Industries:

TQM services contribute immensely in the following ways:

- Practical services to improve the nation a industries in response to the

concern of the Standard Organization Nigeria (SON) and the Executive arm

of the Government about the sub-standard quality of most products and

services offered to consumers by most manufactures and Business Services

Industries.

2.4.2 APPLICATION OF TQM IN CONSULTANCY SERVICES

According to E.U.L. Imaga (2000, pg.193) the uniqueness of this

emergent-technical and industrial management consulting service lies in its

focus on production process. Quality Monitoring and Industrial Services

System Management.

- It is a practical service at shop-floor site with the

immediate management operators of the manufacturing

and service Industries.

- It embraces the full application of Total Quality

Management innovation in Business Management.

- It ensures practical assessment of the problems of

production process and quality systems. This is

achieved through the application of work-study

techniques based on International Standard

Organization requirements for quality systems

management.

2.4.3 PROBLEMS OF IMPLEMENTING TQM

According to Okolie (1996) some of the problems experienced by TQM

practitioners includes: Lack of top management commitment and

leadership, lack of programme focus, inadequate preparation, resistance

during integration, lack of team work, loss of quality champion, non-

implementation of solutions, no evolution of results, no clear plans to

sustain the programme, failure in the ability to tackle the important issues,

staff struggling owing to lack of direction, lack of effective communication,

etc.

Oakland (1993) also identified some problems that may arise in the

implementation of TQM in an organization. These includes: Narrow based

training, failure to provide incentives by recognition, the application of

measurement of administrative practices, loss of focus, loss of credibility,

resistance to change lack of all employee commitment to quality, and lack

of adequate focus on the customer satisfication/requirements.

However, Chukwuigwe ( 1977) in his paper presented at Delta Hostels

Ltd, Port-Harcourt, on the topic, Total quality management, stated some of

the solutions to obstacle associated with TQM implementation. These

includes: Education focus on employee about quality, communication,

participation facilitation, support, training, recognition, evaluation of result

based on recognition, performance, putting clear the mechanics of TAM,

adequate commitment by top and middle management, etc.

2.4.4 STEPS TO IMPLEMENTING TQM IN ORGANIZATION

(Onodugo/J.A. Ezeh 2002)

To formulate a TQM policy

Define and determine quality: This entails determination

of quality standards, plan for quality, yardsticks for

measuring quality and determining the cost of quality.

People management and integration plan should be made

to integrate all employees of the quality plan and ensure

that every one understands how his/her work links with

that of the process design, control and improvement

should be carefully worked out.

There should be a plan for resources generation,

utilization and conservation.

RESEARCHER’S VIEW ABOUT TQM

CHAIN REACTION

TQM

IMPROVED QUALITY

COSTS DECREASE WITH LESS REWORK, FEWER MISTAKES, FEWER

DELAYS AND BETTER USE OF TM AND MATERIAL IMPROVED

QUALITY

IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY

CAPTURE THE MARKET WITH BETTER QUALITY AND

LOWER PRICE

INCREASED PROFITABILITY

STAY IN BUSINESS

PROVIDE MORE JOB

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION

REFERENCES

Adewole E. (1977): Total Quality Management Guardian, May 18. Agunbiade D.B. (1996): Principle and Practice of Total Quality Management, Federal Office of Statistics First National Seminar on TQM, Lagos. Akpeiyi J.J. (1996): Total Quality Management – A Tool for Organizational Excellence, Management in Nigeria, Vol. 32, No. 1. Awujo A.C. (1977): Element Of Management, 2nd Edition, Owerri, Nigeria, Oliverson Industrial Publishing House. Baridam D.M. (1997): Benchmarking: A Total Quality Management Tool Paper Presented by Nigeria Institute of Management, Delta Hotels Ltd., Port- Harcourt. Chukwuigwe N. (1997): Total Quality Management Paper Presented by the Nigerian Institute of Management at Delta Hotel Ltd., Port-Harcourt. Debo L. (1996): Implementing Total Quality Management Business Concord, Vol. A No. 2. Imaga E.U.L. And Nnendu E.E.I (1996): Business Policy and Practice, Port-Harcourt, Jerson Services Ltd. Nwachukeu C.C. (1988): Management Theory and Practice Africana Publisher Ltd. Osunaiji O. (1996): Quality Vehicle for Achieving National Revitalization Falderal Office of Statistics, First National Seminar on Total Quality Management, Lagos.

Oakland J.S. (1993): Total Quality Management, Tokyo Toronto: Butter worth Heinemann. Okolie E. (1996): Implementing Total Quality Management, Federal Office of Statistics, First National Seminar on TotalQuality Management, Lagos. Onanusi S. (1997): Getting the Total Quality Management Ball Rolling, Guardian, March 20. Onodugo V.A. And Ezeh J.A. (2000): Business Policy and Strategic Management Issues And Trend, Enugu Kingsman Publishers. Osanaye A.P. (1996): Quality Improvement Technique: Federal Office of Statistics Proceeding On First National Seminar on Total Quality Management, Lagos.

2.5 NATURE AND MEANING OF TQM AND BENCHEMARKING

Any organization basically competes on its reputation – for all, quality

is the most important of these competitive weapons for the following

reasons:-

(1) Once a-organisaton acquires a poor regulation for quality, it takes

long time to change it;

(2) Populations, good or bad ca-quickly become a national issues, and

(3) The management of the competitive weapons, such as a quality,

can be learned like any other skill, and used to turn round a poor

reputation over time.

What is then “Quality”?

Quality is used to signify excellence of a product or service”. It is simply

meeting the customer requirements and this has been described in

different words as this

Fitness for purpose or use –Juran

The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service

that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied need –B5 4778

(150 8402, 1986) Quality vocabulary

Quality should be aimed at the needs of customer, present and

future –Deming.

Conformance to requirements – Crosby.

it is clear that part of acceptability of a product or service will

depend on its ability to function satisfactorily over a period of time, and it

is this aspect of performance that is referred to as being reliable.

Reliability is the ability of the product or service to continue to meet the

customers requirement, but this should not be confused with the meaning

of quality; Reliability definition of quality captures the functional

characteristics of products or services but the full meaning of quality

definition of a product or service is more associated with satisfaction in

ownership than some functional property. This is true of many items, from

antiquities to certain items of clothing. Persons acquire executive cars,

certain bank account or cards or special reservation to meet the

requirements for status symbols. The requirements are of paramount

importance in the assessment of the quality of any product or service.

The meaning of Total Quality Management (TQM) can best be

captured by examining some of the definitions by different authors. The

definition contained in BS EN 18 8402 (1995);

TQM is a management of an organization centered on quality, based

on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success

through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the

organization and to society. This means that TQM is the mutual co-

operation of everyone in an organization and associated business

processes to produce products and services which meet the needs and

expectation of customers. TQM is both a philosophy and a set of guiding

principles for managing an organization (Eke, 2005).

In the words of Ezeh and Onodugo (2002), TQM was evolved to

correct three areas of defect or misconceptions in quality concept and

these are:-

1. Products are perceived to be a high quality if it meets certain

specified design characteristics and features. TQM came to shift

the emphasis from thus design specification to customers’ tastes

and preferences.

2. The traditional approach to quality control is that of

products/service inspection which detects the defective product

and rework or correct them. This approach only detects poor

quality products without preventing a repeat of the same mistake.

TQM philosophy does not allow room for mistakes, defectives and

poor quality products.

3. The responsibility for quality of products has always being hinged

on the quality assurance department or speed across various

departments in fragment. This approach gives a worn-eye – view

and a departmentalized perspective to quality in organizations in a

traditional setting. TQM believes that quality should be seen as an

organizations wide affair and therefore, various units, sections,

and departments within an organization should share the same

concept of quality.

Ramsey and Roberts, (1992), define TQM as a people focused

management systems that aims at continual increase in customer

satisfaction at continually lower real cost; while Ewurum (2001) describes

the goal of TQM are to integrate all the parts and processes of an

organization in order to achieve continuous improvements in quality of

goods and services along the line dictated by the customer. The aim of

TQM is to attain a zero-defect product services by “ doing the right things

first time and every time” Time core elements of TQM from these

definitions are summarized as :-

Customer satisfaction

Cost reduction via zero-defect product

Continuous improvement of product and organizational

processes

Holistic in its approach.

BENCHMARKING:

Reider, (2000) posits that banking on what has worked in the past

and your own internal Onija board is ineffective substitutes, for objective

internal appraisal and external comparison and analysis – which is called

Benchmarking. Benchmarking can be defined as a process for analyzing

internal operations and activities to identifies areas for positive

improvement and the establishment a performance standard upon which

the activity can be measured. This is aimed at improving each identified

activity so that it can be at its best form. The best practice is not always

measured in terms of the least costs, but may reflect what stakeholders

value as expected levels of performance.

ATTRIBUTES OF BENCHMARKING/PERFORMANCE

MEASUREMENTS:-

A well tested benchmark should possess the following attributes:-

Forward looking: considers present as well as expected future

conditions

Holistic: Includes the needs of all stakeholders as well as those

internal functions.

Participative: developed and considering all stakeholders who might

be affected by the benchmark

Quality-focused:- considers the aspects of customer service and

quality considerations

Stakeholder driven:- focuses on needs of one or more stakeholders

as appropriate

Clear communication of goals and objectives:- all affected

stakeholders know exactly what results are expected from the

successful accomplishment of the benchmark

Identification of best practices and result: Clear description of desired

best practices and result to be accomplished through the successful

implementation of the best practice

Ability to change to achieve best practice: is the organization in the

position to implement the necessary changes easily and effectively?

Part of programme of continuous improvement: is the desired

benchmark and best practice part of a programme of continuous

improvement rather than a stand-alone benchmark?

Internal and competitive excellence: Is the benchmark or

performance measure part of a programme of internal operational

and competitive excellence on an ongoing basis?

AREAS TO WATCH OUT FOR BENCHMARKING

In answer to where should the benchmarking processes centre on –

the products or the processes? Ezeh and Onodugo (2002) posits that

products are inevitable ends of a process. Hence, the kind of products

received is a function of the processes applied to produce it, and therefore,

a good product simply is the outcome of a superior process applied to

produce it, they recommended that if the process is benchmarked, the end

product will naturally result in the desired picture.

Areas to watch out for benchmarking include:

(1) Within the organization:- inter-departmental or subunits

comparison are to be carried out within the organization so as to

discover the unit or department that stand out in excellence

performance appraisal. Where such unit or department is

identified, it could be used as a benchmark to improve the

performance of other non-performing units or departments. This is

referred to as internal benchmarking.

(2) Externally- There should be a close look at the industry to choose

a benchmark among the firm’s competitors. The aim should be to

identifier The highest performer among the competitors, and set it

as a benchmark.

(3) Benchmark can be choosing a business organization in an entirely

different industry. This is breaking industrial boundaries to search

out for the best practice any where to which they can benchmark.

This is called GENERIC benchmarking. A good feature of this type

of benchmarking is that it offers limitless opportunity for

innovation and creativity. It helps to breakdown traditional

boundaries to offer insight and creativity into organizational

performance. The Three types of benchmarking are illustrated

below.

Generic

Competitive

Internal benchmarking

Ease of data

Collection

Relevance

Transferability

Difficulty

Applicability

Cost

Time

Creativity

Cost

Opportunity for

Improvement

Difficulty

Time

SOURCE: MCGORGE AND PALMER (1997)

Note that the arrows in the table indicate that as one moves from

internal benchmarking through competitive to generic, one spends more

time, experiences more difficulties and enjoys more opportunities for

improvement. It also attracts cost and enhances opportunity for

creativity. The reverse is the case when one moves from generic

benchmarking to internal benchmarking:

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.0 INTRODUCTION

Research methodology refers to the various ways, method or

systems which have been adopted by a researcher to assemble materials

or data on the area of his investigation as well as those analytical tools

employed in analyzing the data collected for the research. This chapter

examines the method adopted in carrying out this research and the

research design. In discussing the methods of study, explanations are

based on the research approach employed, research strategy used, sources

of data and instruments of data collections, data analysis and method of

investigation.

The immediate concern of this chapter is to ensure that the research

work is conducted within the frame of the research questions which were

earlier discussed.

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

Taylor, (1988) defined Research design as the basic plan which

guides the data collection and analysis phases of the research project. It is

the frame work which specifies the type of information to be collected, the

sources of data and the data collection procedure.

In essence, research design refers to the plan, structure and strategy

of investigation adopted by the researcher so as to obtain answers to

research questions. This research design had been planned to cover the

overall scheme which outlines the purpose of the research work. The

structure of the research design shows.

(a) The interrelationship of variables;

(b) How objectives are attained;

(c) The problems encountered; and

(d) How such problems were tackled by the researcher

Statistical method of descriptive research is employed in this study.

The study is designed to describe the variable in the model used. In order

to be effective and reliable, a descriptive study is embarked upon through

fact gathering to determine the intricacies of the research problem at hand.

The facts gathered after due consideration had been given the intricacies,

are used to prove or disprove the functional and casual model of the

system under consideration which in this case is “The application of

Benchmarking and Total Quality Management (TQM) as tools in gaining

competitive Advantage; A case study of Unilever Nigeria Plc and May and

Baker Plc.

Adequate measure is however ensured on steps taken in the

collection of data and after which was analyzed to avoid unnecessary data

(and the resultant waste of financial and human resources) and because

“…. facts do not lead any where”. Indeed, facts as facts are the

commonest, cheapest and most useless of all commodities. Anyone with

questionnaires can gather thousands of facts in a day and probably not

find much use of them. What makes facts practical and valuable is glue of

explanation and understanding, the framework of the theory, the tie-rod of

conjecture. Only when facts can be flashed to a skeletal theory, do they

become meaningful in the solution of problem.

Descriptive statistical sampling method is employed in this study for

the following reasons:-

The objective of this study as stated earlier on is to appraise the

application of Benchmarking and TQM as tools in gaining competitive

advantages; A study of May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc;

To highlight the problems of adoption of this strategy (if any) and the

ways of effecting improvement and development;

The study will serve as a guide and planning technique for other

corporate organizations performance; the size of the universe under

study, (i.e. population) is very large and this makes it imperative for

the use of samples; and

The very large sampling frame demands generalization about the

population units rather than a canvas of the total units themselves

because statistical sampling method …. involved. The standards of

few factors in large number of cases.

The statistical method ceases to identify individual case and focuses

instead on classes, averages, percentages, regressions, measures of

dispersion and more sophisticated statistical procedures. If a statistical

standard were to be purely descriptive, that is, if objectives were to be

present, the situation existing at a particular time, the design of the study

sample would tend to be cross-section of the universe under study.

This research design is carefully prepared to ensure minimum bias in

the collection of data needed, and to ensure the removal of errors to which

the interpretation in the next chapter is subjected.

3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH

The research approach adopted in this study is “the Ground theory

Approach” (Glasar and Strauss, 1968). Since the researcher aims at

deducing all his results from the data collected, the Ground theory

approach is most suitable. Moreover, the school of thought in favour of this

approach, opined that the knowledge sought for in any research is

“grounded” in the data, the researcher is able to collect. And as such, the

findings of the researcher emerge from analysis of the results achieved.

By this approach, questionnaires were sent out and personal

interviews conducted in areas where detailed answers are required. The

questions contained in the questionnaire is framed in such a way that

answers given are sufficient in “acceptance’ or “rejection” of the

hypothetical statements.

The questionnaire is divided into two sections. Section A is concerned

with the personal details of the respondent while section B seeks to obtain

the Opinion of the respondent on “the application of Benchmarking and

TQM as tools in gaining completive advantage.”

The ground theory approach encourages the use of research

questions, although the statement of prior hypotheses, have been

employed. Therefore, this study could be regarded as exploratory work

combined with prior set of hypotheses.

3.3 RESEARCH STRATEGIES

The success of every research work rest largely on the quality of the

sampling and great care are needed at every stage in the development of

suitable sample for this reason, case study method was employed as

opposed to the survey method.

According to Ahiazu (1981), “A case study involves the study of one

group at a point in time, and arriving at conclusion in relation to the

situation of one group” while the survey method is one in which “a

representative sample of the population is studied and the results

generalized. Seltize et al (1959) have argued that the case study approach

provides Situating insight, which Adoku (1985) in his research on “workers

participation”, further explained to be an in-depth, far-reaching and

intensive analysis of what prevails in the work place.

Due to the limitations of this research as earlier discussed in chapter

one, the research could not be carried out in all the corporate organizations

in Nigeria. Hence, the stratification of May and Baker Plc and Unilever

Nigeria Plc were chosen as the sample.

Osuala (1983) said that one of the cogs in the wheel of progress of

research work in Nigeria is the difficulty encountered in data collection; as

institutions and individuals are not always dispose at giving away

information. The choice of the May and Baker Plc and Unilever Plc was

informed on the approachability of these British origin firms and

convenience so as to conserve scarce resources and limited fund available

to the researcher. And also, their head offices are located in one town

Lagos.

3.4 SOURCES OF DATA

The data for the study are drawn from two main sources which are

the primary data source and the secondary data source.

3.4.1 PRIMARY DATA

The primary data were obtained from questionnaires administered,

which contained questions of the study for which responses were obtained

from the selected respected respondents from the sample frame, May and

Baker Plc and Unilever Plc.

3.4.2 SECONDARY DATA

The source of secondary data for this study include previous work

(published and unpublished) relating to Total Quality Management and

Benchmarking, topical issues on the subject matter by various scholars

which are found in journals, dailies, textbooks and magazines

3.5 POPULATION OF THE STUDY

The population of this study include all the corporate organizations in

Nigeria in the competitive market environment aspiring to gain competitive

advantage, but using May and Baker Plc and Unilever Plc as Sample frame.

3.6 SAMPLE SIZE

This can be statistically determined to obtain the number of

questionnaires to be distributed.

n = N 1+N (e)2

Where n = Sample size

N = Population of Study

e = Acceptable margin of error;

given as 0.10

Given that N, the population of study is 99 persons,

and e = 0.01,

n, the sample size is determined as below

n = N 1+ N (e)2 n = 99 99 1+99 (0.10)2 = 1+99 (0.01) = 99 = 49.75 50 copies of questionnaires 1.99

3.7 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS/METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

These refer to the tools for information data gathering.

Questionnaires/Schedules and personal interviews were employed to

sample groups and individual opinion: In order to establish the reliability of

most of the questionnaires responses graphs and pie chart, histogrammes

and Chi square test statistics were used.

The use of questionnaires as a tool for information gathering and

data collection in the research work was borne out of the advantages

offered by this method and these include:-

(a) Individuals and groups of people’s knowledge, beliefs, intentions

and motivation on the subject matter of this study;

(b) Questionnaires are useful in confirming the objectivity of

information collected on research; and

(c) It saves time, effort and costs.

The table bellow shows the distribution of questionnaires sent out

and returned.

Table 3.7 percentage distribution of questioners

Length of

service

No of copies

sent out

% of copies

sent out

No of copies

returned

% of copies

returned

Under 5

years

24 48 23 46

5-10 15 30 14 28

11-15 8 16 8 16

16 – 20 2 4 2 4

21 years

and above

1 2 1 2

50 100 48 96

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

The above table is simple and self explanatory. It can be seen that

48 out of the 50 copies of the questionnaires distributed, representing 96%

of the total number were actually returned.

REFERENCES

Adoku, N.N (1985): Workers Participation in Nigeria Organizations. Unpublished MBA Thesis of the Rivers State University of Sciences and Technology, Port Harcourt. Ahiazu, A.I (1981): Culture and Job Regulations: Unpublished P.H.D Thesis of University of Aston, Birmingham. Boyo et al (1972): Marketing Research Test and Cases. Richard D. Irwn Inc, Illinois. Glasar, B.G (1968): The Discovery of Grounded Theory Adline Press London. Osuala I (1983) Proger P. (1980): Dictionary of Contemporary English. The English Language Book Society. London. Robert Feaber (1964): Marketing Research. Et Al Ronald Press London Selltize Etal (1959): Research Methods in Social Regulations. The Ward and Winston Publishers New York. Taylor, J.R. (1988): Marketing Research. An Applied Approach Macgraw Hill Inc. Japan. Zaltman, G And Burga P.C.(1983): Marketing Research Fundamental A.D Dynamics. Mac Graw. Hill Inc. Japan.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1 DATA PRESENTATION

Data collected were grouped into personal data variables, which

formed the part A of the questionnaires and length of service. While part B,

comprises research questions on the application of TQM and Benchmarking

as tools in gaining competitive advantage.

Tables are used in the interpretation of raw data (primary data)

obtained from the sample. Questionnaires responses are also analyzed in

this chapter.

4.2 ANALYSIS OF DATA

The table below represents analysis of data on personal detail of

respondents.

TABLE 4.2.1

A, PERSONAL DETAIL No of % of

1. Sex male responses responses 23 46 Female 25 50 Total 48 96 2. Age 16-35 23 46 36-45 12 24 46 and above 13 26 Total 48 96 Highest 3. Educational A. WASC/GCE; ND, NCE 10 20 Qualification B. HND, BSc 27 54 C. PGD, NBA, MSc, Phd 8 16 D. Others Specify 3 6 Total 48 96 4. Status Top Management 15 30 Middle ,, 13 26 Lower ,, 20 40 Total 48 96

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

The table above fully express the differences in perception of the

respondents. For instance, on sex: 23 which represents 46% out of 50

persons in the sample from each establishment are males while, 25,

representing 50% are female respondents.

On Age: 23 which represents 46% out persons are between the ages

of 16 to 35 years, 12 (24%) are between the 36-45 years and 13 (26%)

are 46 years and above.

The average age of personnel in each of the establishment is

computed as following:

TABLE 4.2.1 MEAN AGES OF PERSONNEL

Age Mid-point Frequency

years X F Fx

16-35 25.5 35 892.5

36-45 40.5 7 283.5

46 and above 50 6 300

Total 48 1476

Mean, X = fx = 1476 Σf 48 = 30.75 years = 31 years (approx)

The mean age of 31 years shows personnel canvassed for their opinion on

the topic are working adults who can make a policy statement of

significance.

Also, the mean length of service of the workers in two corporate

organizations is calculated as below:

4.2.3 MEAN LENGTH OF SERVICE OF PERSONNEL

Length of Service x f fx

under 5 years 2.5 15 37.5

5-10 years 7.5 4 30.0

11-15 years 13 6 78.0

16-20 years 18 18 324.0

21 years and above 25.5 5 127.5

Total 48 597.0

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

Mean, X = fx = 597.0 = 12.43 years Σf 48.0 12years approx

An average working age of 12 years shows that the respondents are

men and women of wealth of experience on the job and in the society.

TABLE 4.2.4 AWARENESS OF TQM

OPINION NO OF RESPONSES % OF RESPONSE

Yes 46 92

No 2 4

48 96

Source: Response question No 8

from the table, 92% of the respondents accepted the fact that they are

aware of the concept of TQM and Benchmarking.

TABLE 4.2.5 INTRODUCTION OF TQM AND BENCHMARKING

OPINION NO OF RESPONSES % OF RESPONSES

Yes 45 90

No 3 6

48 96

Source: Responses question No 9.

from the above table, it is clear that 90 of the respondents affirm that the

concept has been introduced into their organization while only 6 percent

claimed ignorance.

4.3 DATA ANALYSIS

Statistical Test Technique Employed: - The statistical technique

employed is analyzing the data gathered in this research study is the Chi-

square distribution denoted by X2

The formula for the Chi square is as thus

X2 = Σ (0-E)2

E

Where, O = observed frequency

E = expected frequency

Σ = Summation

X2 = Chi Square

The degree of freedom (df) is given by

df = (m -1 ) (n-1)

Where m = Number of Row

n = Number of Columns

And for the purpose of this test, our degree of freedom.

df = (m-1) (n-1)

= (2-1) (3-1)

= 1 x 2

df = 2

Discussion:

I have chosen Chi-Square as the test Statistic for analyzing data in

this study because Chi square is usually employed when the test of

independence of variable of the sample data are sought, although apparent

difference may exist due to the fluctuations of random sampling (sampling

errors) as well as difference between variables.

4.4 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS

ASSUMPTIONS:

The following assumptions are adopted throughout the test of

hypothesis.

(a) 1% Level of significance, x = 0.01

(b) Degree of freedom: Since we have a 2x3 contingency table, the

degree of freedom,

df = (2-1) (3-1) = 2

(c) Critical Value: At degree of freedom, of 2, The Chi square

X2(0.01) is read from the table as

X2 0.01 at 2, = 9.210

(d) The Expected frequency (E) is calculated

E = Column total x Row total

Over all total

(e) The Null Hypothesis, denoted by H0 and the Alternative Hypothesis

is denoted by HA

]

DECISION RULE

In testing the Null hypothesis H0, the decision rule is to Accept

the Null hypothesis if the Chi-square Calculated is less than the critical

value Chi-square read from the table. And to Reject the Null hypothesis if

the X2 calculated is greater than the Chi square derived from the table.

Reject H0 if X2 calculated < X2 0.01 at 2 = 9.210

Accept H0 if X2 calculated > X2 0.01 at = 9.210

4.4.1 HYPOTHESIS ONE

H0: The application of TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc

and Unilever Nigeria Plc has not lead to superior corporate performance.

HA: The application of TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc

and Unilever Nigeria performance.

tested with questions (8) – (12), decision based on question (10)

responses as shown beow:

Table 4.4.1 Observed frequencies and Expected frequencies of the sample

result.

Response Top

management

Middle

management

Lower

management

Total

responses

% of

response

Yes 10 (9.0) 8 (7.5) 6 (7.5) 24 50%

No 8 (9.0) 7 (7.5) 9 (7.5) 24 50%

Total 18 15 15 48 100

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

The expected frequencies are in bracket

Chi square calculation for hypothesis 1

O E O-E (O – E)2 (O – E)2

E

10.0 9.0 1.0 1.00 0.11

8.0 7.5 0.5 0.25 0.03

6.0 7.5 -1.5 0.25 0. 03

8.0 9.0 -0.5 1.00 0.11

7.0 7.5 -0.5 0.25 0.03

9.0 7.5 -1.5 2.25 0.30

x2 = Σ (O-E)2 = 0.88

Decision 0.88 < 9.210,

... We reject H0 and accept the HA: that the application of TQM and

Benchmarking by May and Baker and Unilever Nigeria Plc had led to their

superior corporate performances.

4.4.2 HYPOTHESIS 2

HO: There is no significant relationship between the resources of May and

Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and the creation of a sustainable

competitive advantage.

HA: There is a significant relationship between the resources of May and

Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and the creation of a sustainable

competitive advantage

Tested with questions (13) and (14) and decision based on question (14)

responses

Table 4.4.2 Observed frequencies and expected frequencies of the sample

result

Respons

e

Top

managemen

t

Middle

managemen

t

Lowe

managemen

t

Total

response

s

% of

response

s

Yes 14 (14.25) 12 (11.0) 12 (12.67) 38 79

No 4 93.75) 2 (2.92) 4 (3.33) 10 21

Total 18 14 16 48 100

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

The expected frequencies are in bracket.

The Chi square Calculation for hypothesis 2.

O E O – E (O - E)2 (O – E)2

E

14.0 14.25 - 0.25 0.0625 0.00

12.0 11.08 0.92 0.08464 0.08

12.0 12.67 -0.67 0.4489 0.04

4.0 3.75 0.25 0.0625 0.02

2.0 2.29 -0.71 0.8464 0.29

4.0 3.33 0.67 0.4489 0.13

X2 = 0.56

DECISION: 0.56 < 9. 210

: We reject H0 and conclude that there is significant relationship

between the resources of May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and

the creation of a sustainable competitive Advantage

4.4.3 HYPOTHESIS THREE

H0: There is no significant relationship between the implementation of

TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc and

their leadership position in the manufacturing industry Nigeria

Tested with question (15) and (16) and decision based on question (16)

responses as shown below:

Table 4.43 observed frequencies and expected frequencies of the

sample result.

Response

s

Top

managemen

t

Middle

managemen

t

Lower

managemen

t

Total

response

s

%

response

s

Yes 11 (10.3)* 15 (14.5) 15 (16.2) 41 85

No 1 (1.7) 2 (2.5) 2 (2.8) 7 25

Total 12 17 19 40 100

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

* The expected frequencies are in bracket

Chi square calculation or hypothesis three

O E O – E (O – E)2 (O – E)2

E

11 10.3 0.7 0.25 0.02

15 14.5 0.5 0.25 0.02

15 16.2 - 1.2 1.44 0.09

1 1.7 - 0.7 0.49 0.30

2 2.5 - 0.5 0.25 0.10

4 2.8 1.2 1.44 0.50

X2 = Σ ( 0 – E)2 = 1.06

E

DECISION: 1.06 < 9. 210

... We reject H0 and accept HA: That there is significant relationship

between implementation of TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc

and Unilever Nigeria Plc another leadership position in manufacturing

industry Nigeria.

4.4.4 HYPOTHESIS FOUR

H0: There is no guarantee that the continual application of TQM

and Benchmarking by Plc will keep them on top for a foreseeable future

time.

HA: There is a guarantee that the continual application of TQM and

Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc will keep

them on top for a foreseeable future time.

Tested with question (17) – (19) and decision based on responses to

Question (17) as shown below:-

Table 4.4.4 Observed and expected frequencies of the sample result

Response

s

Top

managemen

t

Middle

managemen

t

Lower

managemen

t

Total

response

s

% of

response

s

Yes 10 (10.29)* 15 (13.46) 13 (14.25) 38 79

No 3 (2.71) 2 (3.54) 5 (3.73) 10 21

Total 13 17 18 48 100

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

* The expected frequencies are in bracket.

Chi square calculation for Hypothesis FOUR

O E O – E (O –E)2 (O – E)2

E 10 10.29 - 0.29 0.084 0.01 15 13.46 1.54 2.3716 0.18 13 14.25 - 1.25 1.5625 0.11 3 2.71 0.29 0.0841 0.03 2 3.54 - 1.54 2.3716 0.67 5 3.75 1.25 1.5625 0.42 X2 = Σ (O –E)2 = E 1.42 DECISION 1.42 < 9. 210

. .. WE reject H0 and conclude that there is a guarantee that the continual

application TQM and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever

Nigeria plc will keep them on top for a foreseeable future time.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDIDNGS:

The purpose of this chapter is to present a summary of major

findings on the subject matter of this study, the whole exercise is aimed at

finding out the extent to which the application of Total Quality

Management (TQM) and Benchmarking by May and Baker Plc and Unilever

Nigeria plc has helped them to gain competitive advantage in the

manufacturing sub-sector of Nigeria. The study also looked into the extent

at which the application of the philosophy of TQM and Benchmarking has

helped these organizations to improve their corporate performance in

product and services delivery, the effect on their workforce and some

problems associated with the implementation of the programme. Equally,

the future application of this concept for sustainable performance was

examine and finally, the universal application by organizations struggling to

gain competitive edge was equally considered.

The followings represent the summary of the findings for this study:-

(1) Though the concept of TQM and Benchmarking is relatively new, it

has gained widely acceptance.

(2) With TQM, organizations are not only interested in quality of its

finished products alone, but quality, as defined in all its operations

by every member of the organization.

(3) TQM and Benchmarking is seeking a zero defect on their final

output and cost reduction as well.

(4) Like every other programme carried out by man, there are some

problems associated with the implementation of the total quality

management and Benchmarking policy in every organization.

(5) The study also found out that there are a lot of motivational

factors associated with adoption of this concept as the employees

affirm their commitment to the policy.

(6) There seems to be a congruence between the top performance of

these organizations and their application of the TQM and

Benchmarking Strategy.

The enumerated findings cannot be said to be exhaustive bearing in

mind the limitation of this study as earlier stated as a major constraint and

equally, is based on analysis of my primary and secondary data which is

capable of appreciable level of errors.

5 .2 CONCLUSION:

After a careful analysis of the findings of this study, one can easily

see that the fantastic performances of these organizations, are traceable to

their adoption of TQM and Benchmarking strategy.

The Total Quality Management and Benchmarking is a

comprehensive approach to quality search and it insists on continual

improvement. That is to say that there is no term as the best quality”.

The high motivation of their employees also has to do with this

philosophy as every one has a feeling of contribution to the organization’s

performance.

The use of TQM and Benchmarking can indeed be effective tool to

gaining competitive advantage.

It requires huge support of the organizations resources both man and

material especially the top management, for the implementation of this

policy to be effective.

5.3 RECOMENDATIONS

One bail out option to organizations in competing environment is the

quick adoption of the TQM and Benchmarking strategy, hence I strongly

recommend it to other players in Nigeria economy.

Other prescriptions include:

Organizations should attract competent calibre of employees as this

will form the fulcrum of all other strategies;

More resources should be committed to training and development of

its manpower needs;

And they should build a flexible and more response organizational

structure which can easily adapt to changing economic climate.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

TEXT BOOKS:

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Unpublished MBA Thesis of the Rivers State University

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Federal Office of Statistics, First National Seminar on

TQM, Lagos.

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University of Aston, Birmingham.

Akpeiyi J.J. (1996): Total Quality Management – A Tool for Organizational

Excellence, Management In Nigeria Vol. 32, No. 1.

Awujo A.C. (1977): Element Of Management, 2nd

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Oliverson Industrial Publishing House.

Baridam D.M. (1997): Benchmarking: A Total Quality Management Tool Paper

Presented By Nigeria Institute of Management, Delta

Hotels Ltd., Port Harcourt.

Boyo Et Al (1972): Marketing Research Test and Cases. Richard Irwin Inc

Illinois.

Chukwuigwe N. (1997): Total Quality Management Paper Presented By the

Nigerian Institute of Management at Delta Hotel Ltd,

Port Harcourt.

Debo L. (1996): Implementing Total Quality Management Business

Concord, Vol. A No.2.

Imaga E.U.L. And

Macgrawhill Inc. Japan.

Nnendu E.E.I. (1996): Business Policy and Practice, Port Harcourt, Jerson

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Ltd.

Oakland J.S. (1993): Total Quality Management, Tokyo, Toronto: Butter

Worth Heinenmann.

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Federal Office of Statistics, First National Seminar on

Total Quality Management, Lagos.

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of Statistics, First National Seminar on Total Quality

Management, Lagos.

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Guardian, March 20.

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Osanaye A.P. (1996): Quality Improvement Technique: Federal Office of Statistics

Proceeding on First National Seminar on Total Quality

Management, Lagos.

Osunaiji O. (1996): Quality Vehicle For Achieve National Revitalization

Federal Office of Statistics National Seminar on TQM,

Lagos.

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JOURNALS

Blendel T. (1993): Benchmarking for Competitive Situation: Financial

Times Pitman Publishing London.

CAM And CAJE (1994): “Computer and Benchmarking” Financial Times, Pitman

Publishers, London.

Construction Management (1992): “Construction and Benchmarking” European

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Pitman Publication, London.

Spelemdonil M.J. (1992): “The Benchmarking Book American Management

Association Times (AMA). New York.

Department of Management,

Faculty of Business Administration University of Nigeria Enugu Campus 2nd October, 2008.

Dear Respondent,

I am a post graduate of student of the above mentioned university

and I am researching on the topic: “The application of benchmarking and

total quality management (TQM) as tools in gaining competitive and

advantage: A study of May and Baker Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc.

Attached is a questionnaire which I oblige you to complete for me to

enable me achieve the research findings.

I consider your response very important to achieving my aims and I

promise to treat it confidentially and to use it solely for an academic

exercise.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Yours faithfully,

UDEIGWE, GODFREY O.

QUESTIONNAIRE

The application of benchmarking and total quality management (TQM) as tools in gaining competitive and advantage: a study of may and baker plc and unilever Nigeria plc.

SECTION A

PERSONAL DATA:

1. Which level of the management do you belong to? (a) Top

(b) Middle (c) Lower

2. How long have you worked in the company?

Under 5years 5-10 years 11-15 years

16-20 years 21 years and above

3. What is your highest Educational Qualification?

WASC/GCE/ND/NCE HND/BSc/BA/B.ED

PGD/MSC/MBA/MPA/PHD Others Specify

4. Which is your Age bracket?

16-35 years 36-45 years

46 years and above

5. What is your marital status?

Single Married Divorced

6. Sex: Male Female

SECTION B

Please Mark (X) in box that best satisfies your response

7. Benchmarking and Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management

philosophy which seeks to integrate all parts and processes of an organization in

order to achieve a continuous improvement in quality of goods and services along

the line dictated by the customer. Do you agree with this statement?

Yes No

8. Do you believe that the application of Benchmarking and TQM can be used

as tools to gaining competitive advantage? Yes No

9. Is this philosophy presently being practised in your company?

Yes No

10. Do you think that implementation of Benchmarking and TQM by your

organization has contributed to their improved corporate performance in the

recent years? Yes No

11. Has the strategy increased your customers’ satisfaction both in product and

services presently? Yes No

12. Are all the personnel in support of the policy of Benchmarking and TQM

since its introduction? Yes No

13. Can you say that the application TQM and Benchmarking is responsible for

your company’s fantastic performance for the past two years?

Yes No

14. Do you think that the resources of your organization enabled the easy

introduction of the TQM and Benchmarking strategy in creating a

sustainable competitive advantage?

Yes No

15. Prior to implementation of TQM and Benchmarking your firm was not

maintaining any leadership position, is it true? Yes No

16. The implementation of TQM and Benchmarking by your organization has

earned her the leadership position in the industry today?

Yes No

17. The continual application of TQM and Benchmarking will guarantee your

organization to remain on top in the years ahead, do you believe it?

Yes No

18. Is it obvious that the in introduction of TQM and benchmarking has led to

zero defect and cost savings? Yes No

19. Do you recommend the philosophy of TQM and Benchmarking to all

organizations? Yes No

20. Are there still areas for improvement where the TQM and Benchmarking is

lacking in your organization? Yes No