Total quality management (TQM) is a crucial concept in ensuring that companies survive in this increasingly competitive global market. Japanese companies are very successful because of the adoption and implementation of TQM principles expounded by quality gurus such as Deming, Juran, Taguchi and others. In order to survive in the global market with intense competition between regions and enterprises, the adoption of TQM practices is essential to ensure business excellence. Many non-Japanese companies particularly in the Malaysian context are still in the initial stage of TQM implementation. This piece of work relates to a study on the comparison between Japanese companies and non-Japanese companies in Malaysia with regard to TQM practices. A questionnaire was prepared and sent to 370 companies from the electrical and electronics sector in Malaysia which gave a 21.9% response rate. Attempts were made at finding significant differences between Japanese and non-Japanese companies with regard to TQM practices and the companies' view of the importance thereof. It was found that there are significant differences in TQM practices between Japanese and non-Japanese companies. Management leadership, measurement and feedback, product design and education and training are the significant factors, which shows the strength of Japanese companies with superior practices in these four factors as against non-Japanese companies. There are no significant differences in perception of the importance of TQM between Japanese and non-Japanese companies except for the product design factor. This study shows that Japanese companies place high importance on product design and they believe quality starts from design and in turn will determine manufacturability, reliability and product quality. This points to the need for much greater emphasis to be placed on future quality improvement programmes for local companies. Further studies can be made focusing on the other types of industry in Malaysia, such as automotive, food processing and metal-based, to develop a comprehensive TQM implementation framework to be built upon to meet the needs of Malaysian industries in their drive towards achieving TQM practices

Volume 21

Numbers 1-2