| 1. |
- Bengtsson, Marcus, 1977-
(författare)
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On Condition Based Maintenance and its Implementation in Industrial Settings
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In order to stay competitive, it is necessary for companies to continuously increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their production processes. High availability has, thus, increased in importance. Therefore, maintenance has gained in importance as a support function for ensuring, e.g., quality products and on-time deliveries. Maintenance, though, is a costly support function. It has been reported that as much as 70% of the total production cost can be spent on maintenance. Further, as much as one-third of the cost of maintenance is incurred unnecessarily due to bad planning, overtime cost, limited or misused preventive maintenance, and so on. In so, condition based maintenance is introduced as one solution for a more effective maintenance.In condition based maintenance, critical item characteristics are monitored in order to gain early indications of an incipient failure. Research, though, has shown that condition based maintenance has not been implemented on a wide basis. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate how a condition based maintenance approach can be implemented in an industrial setting, and to develop a method that can assist companies in their implementation efforts. Further, the research has been divided in three research questions. They focus on: constituents of a condition based maintenance approach, decision-making prior implementation of condition based maintenance, and finally, the implementation of condition based maintenance in a company.By using a systems approach and a case study process, how condition based maintenance can be implemented as a routine has been investigated. The result is an implementation method in which four suggested phases are presented. The method starts with a feasibility test. It then continues with an analysis phase, an implementation phase, and an assessment phase. The conclusions can be summarized as follows: implementing condition based maintenance consists of many general enabling factors, including management support, education and training, good communication, and motivation etc.
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| 2. |
- Fredriksson, Maria
(författare)
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From Customer Satisfaction to Citizen Interaction : a cooperation model for community development based on Total Quality Management
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Current problems with unemployment and the consequences of cut-down in the public sector need appropriate solutions, where private citizens perhaps take on more active roles than today, individually or in groups. The aim with this doctoral thesis is to contribute to one such solution, which is a cooperation model for societal development in local communities, based on Total Quality Management (TQM) and on the participation of many residents. The model is gradually developed with the help of collected experiences and opinions from three stakeholder groups in two different Swedish communities, as well as from general theories and literature. These groups are the quality-project initiators, the community residents and the local politicians. The disposition of the thesis is accordingly. The thesis contains two case studies. The first one concerns the use of TQM as a support of societal development in a local community. The improvement work is conducted within a non-profit organisation built on voluntary engagement. These experiences have then been compared, in the second case study, to the ones in another community where TQM is not used, but where the ambitions are the same. Here the framework for the improvement work is both a non-profit organisation and a for-profit one. The analyses indicate that TQM can be used with success within societal development, even if some of its tools or methodologies are interpreted in new ways, or not used at all. As TQM should be applied with regard to the type of organisation and its purpose, a certain flexibility is both expected and helpful. As far as management is concerned, the leadership needs to be “softer” and more diplomatic when managing unpaid volunteers, as compared to the situation in a commercial enterprise. Another observation is that the societal work is best conducted within groups, defined by situations or activities in life or in the society. An active resident can join a group according to interest. This is a modified version of the “quality circles” inherent to TQM. In a separate, and more theoretical study, the issue of adopting TQM to new sectors in society is discussed. In both the studied societies, there are difficulties to get residents involved or active, which puts into question the mandate with a large community project that aims at improving the quality of life for all residents. There are also difficulties with finding and renewing the leadership, and with communication with, above all, local politicians. Nevertheless, these politicians are in general positive to private initiatives like the ones in the two communities, and consider such projects very important for the future development of rural areas. They think that the experienced weaknesses can be reduced if the improvement work is distinctly defined and organised, if information and communication improve, and if the active residents become more educated about the procedures and limitations of the political governing of the communities. These and other observations of the two communities lead to a model where a cooperation between societal stakeholders develop in three phases; the start-up, the establishment and the continuation of the work. Each phase is discussed separately, and advice is given how to avoid, or meet, various problems that are likely to appear along the way.
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| 3. |
- Lilja, Johan
(författare)
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The Realization of Attractive Quality : Conceptual and practical perspectives within the TQM system
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Within the quality community, quality management is often pictured as and referred to as rapidly evolving and continuously learning by interaction with the surrounding world. In general, an ability to evolve and transform is also seen as most desirable and the only choice for long term survival. In line with this picture, quality scholars, consultants, and practitioners strongly accentuate the necessity and great benefits from continuous improvement as well as systematic collection and usage of facts about what customers really value, to guide such improvement. This is reflected in the exhortations “improve continuously”, “focus on the customer” and “base decisions on facts”, found with minor variations in most modern quality literature. Strong exhortations mainly directed outwards, towards the many leaders and organizations out there. Towards leaders and organizations that still have not grasped the necessity and great winnings from continuous improvement, that are still not fully applying modern quality initiatives like Total Quality Management (TQM). However, while seemingly being busy exhorting others, doubts have been increasingly raised concerning whether TQM, as currently applied, actually lives up to these exhortations. Does TQM itself continuously improve and evolve? Is the current application of TQM really taking into account facts in the surrounding world about what customers value? When viewing TQM as a system, as now is commonly done, the problem implied is a lack of system goal fulfillment, questioning if the current TQM system’s structure and processes are really purposeful. More specifically the critics highlight the inadequacy of the current reactive one-sided defect avoidance focus, stressing that defects do not matter much if you are making a product no one wants to buy. What can be referred to as “an obsession with error avoidance” is in fact shown to stifle both innovation and value creation. As for what the TQM system currently is missing, the shortcoming is often referred to as a lack of focus on Attractive Quality. That is, a lack of focus on a different kind of quality elements, often described as being unrelated to the dissatisfaction expressed, but strongly contributing to the customer’s positive emotions, such as delight. The inclusion and realization of Attractive Quality has been widely emphasized as important and urgent for more than 20 years. However, a more systematic inclusion and realization within the TQM system has remained no more than merely “a vision”. A situation seemingly supporting the argument that TQM really has failed in terms of continuously evolving and improving. An inability to learn and adapt that in the long term will jeopardize the survival of the entire TQM system. This thesis then aims to move “from a vision to reality” both in terms of exploring the realization of Aattractive Qquality within TQM, and in a wider sense towards realizing the desired state of TQM as truly evolving and alive. In doing so the thesis addresses the three questions of what, why and how the vision of a more systematic creation of Aattractive Qquality creation actually should and could be realized within the system of TQM. Among the results presented in this thesis are a new two-dimensional perspective on Attractive Quality and a re-understanding of the TQM system. The thesis also introduces a new methodology called Attraction Detection Study (ADS) as part of the concluding suggestions about how Attractive Quality could be more systematically created within the system of TQM.
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| 4. |
- Bäckström, Ingela, 1963-
(författare)
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On the Relationship between Sustainable Health and Quality Management : Leadership and organizational behaviours from Swedish organizations
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sickness absence not only causes significant costs for organizations but also leads to other negative consequences for individuals and societies. Previous research has shown that working with organizational values within Quality Management affects job satisfaction and results in increased profitability and customer satisfaction. There would, in addition, seem to be great gains if managers, by working with Quality Management, can manage to establish sustainable health among co-workers. The purpose of the research described in this thesis was to examine how Quality Management could be practised in order to support sustainable health among co-workers and what it is within Quality Management that influences sustainable co-worker health. Accordingly, the purpose was also to contribute to the understanding of the relation between sustainable health and Quality Management. To fulfil this purpose, three research questions were asked. The results are described in three parts related to the three research questions and are the product of six case studies carried out in seven different organizations. Interviews with managers and workshops with co-workers were carried out to investigate how Quality Management can be practised within organizations in order to promote sustainable co-worker health. These investigations took place in four organizations that had received awards. Three had been awarded for their excellence in leadership, work environment and co-workership, along with improved profitability; one for its successful implementation of quality programmes. The results are descriptions of methodologies, behaviours, values and organization structure used by the organizations to support sustainable health. These are exemplified with practical examples. The methodologies, behaviours, values, and organizational structure are considered possible for other organizations to adopt and all of them are already supported in the quality, management and leadership literature. Support from the health literature is also found for most of the behaviours, methodologies, values, and organizational structure. Surveys and focus groups interviews were carried out in five different organizations in order to find out what is of most importance when practising Quality Management in order to influence sustainable co-worker health. The results pointed to ‘Leadership Commitment’ as the most central of the values for achieving sustainable health among the co-workers. Furthermore, the values ‘Continuous Improvements’, ‘Participation of Everybody’ and ‘Customer Orientation’ were found to be related to sustainable health among the co-workers. The values ‘Leadership Commitment’ and the value ‘Participation of Everybody’ were then further elaborated to find aspects of importance for sustainable co-worker health. From the value ‘Leadership Commitment’ four aspects were extracted. These were labelled ‘Empathy’, ‘Presence and Communication’, ‘Integrity’, and ‘Continuity’. The results showed relations between the value ‘Leadership Commitment’ within Quality Management and sustainable health among the co-workers. Thus it is essential for leaders to work in accordance with that value to achieve results in the work towards sustainable co-worker health. The results indicate that this requires management and leadership that are characterized by the aspects above. The leaders have to: • Really understand the co-workers and their work situation. • Be present and available for co-workers and communicate with them. • Act as a role model, be fair and keep their promises. • Stay in their positions long enough to build up trust and confidence. The value ‘Participation of Everybody’ has also been shown to be related to sustainable health among the co-workers. This indicates that it is important to work in accordance with that value in the struggle to achieve sustainable health among the co-workers. The results imply that this value is characterized by the aspects ‘Development’, ‘Influence’ and ‘Being informed’. This could be done by: • Giving the co-workers opportunities to develop their skills and develop personally. • Letting the co-workers influence their work situation and taking suggestions and proposals from them seriously. • Having good communication within the whole organization. To manage this; the managers have to delegate more and empower the co-workers. These results were then further elaborated within another organization in order to develop a measurement approach that can clarify the extent to which the values, ‘Leadership Commitment’ and ‘Participation of Everybody’ permeate an organization. The developed measurement approach can be used to clarify the extent to which the organization is practising the health-promoting values within Quality Management and in what areas improvement is needed to increase co-worker health. The approach can also help the organization to detect those shortcomings within the management which are important for co-worker well-being. The developed measurement approach can be used to establish and enhance co-worker health by improving their well-being, satisfaction and motivation.
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| 5. |
- Bäckström, Ingela, 1963-
(författare)
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Quality Management for Sustainable Health : Methodologies, Values and Practices taken from Swedish Organizations
- 2006
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In many Western countries today, not least in Sweden, there are a lot of organizations that have great problems with sickness absence. The costs connected to the high rates of sickness absence have also risen to alarming levels. Healthy co-workers and healthy organizations are obvious goals for many leaders, but this is not always so easy to establish. Work practices and leadership that are beneficial to co-worker health are thus vital to identify. Studies have shown relationships between company-wide implementation of quality programs and improved co-worker satisfaction along with low co-worker turn over; in other words, co-worker health along with improved customer satisfaction and financial results. Despite the great problems concerning sickness absence, there are organizations that have been awarded prizes for excellence in leadership, internal partnership, working environment, and profitability. The overall purposes of the research described in this thesis are to examine and describe how management and leadership can establish sustainable health among the co-workers and examine how the leadership for sustainable health is related to Quality Management. The in-depth purpose is to examine which aspects within the values derived from the quality movement are those that primarily influence the co-workers’ perceived health. The results presented can be described in three parts and are results from four case studies carried out in five different organizations. Three of the organizations have received awards for establishing good working environment, good financial results, and low sick leaves among their co-workers; the fourth received an award for the successful implementation of quality programs. The first part consists of results from case studies in three different organizations and describes how organizations can work to achieve sustainable health among their co-workers, with practical examples. The results are methodologies, values and organizational structure, which it is considered possible for other organizations to adopt in their efforts to achieve good working conditions resulting in fewer sick leaves. The second part is an attempt to investigate if leadership for sustainable health is related to Quality Management. Methodologies, leadership values, organizational structure, and general values found in organizations which have achieved sustainable health are analyzed in the light of Deming’s 14 points, and a correlation is indicated. There is also correlation found between the TQM values and the co-workers’ perception of their health. The third part examines which of the aspects within the values grown from the quality movement are those that influence the co-workers perceived health. The results show significant correlation between the values and the co-workers’ perception of their health. Aspects found within the value “Top management commitment” were named; Empathy, Presence and Communication, Integrity, and Continuity. Within the value “Let everybody be committed” the aspects; Development, Influence and Being informed were found. These aspects are described in more detail and also in one model per value. The result implies that the TQM values; “Top management commitment”, “Improve continuously” “Let everybody be Committed” and “Focus on customers” are important for achieving healthy organizations and sustainable health among co-workers.
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