YOUSSEF, Mohamed A. <br/><br/>
Quality management practices in a flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) environment 

 - Oxfordshire :  Routledge,  September 2002 
<br/><br/> The use of Flexible Manufacturing Systems, hereafter FMS, and quality management practices cannot be separated. However, most of the studies by academics and practitiners in this are of inquiry, fail to examine this relatinship empirically and comprehenisvely. This paper fills this void by examining how the use of FMS affects quality management practices in manufacturing firms. The uniqueness of our study is that it overcomes the shortcomings of previous studies by broadly examining a number of quality management practices that rangew from the importance of quality to the use of quality tools and techniques. The Human Resource Management (HRM) aspect of quality management practices was also examined in terms of employee involvement and participation. The data used in this exporatory study were collected from 102 companies in the following US industries: aerospace, electronics industrial and fam equipment, metal product, and motor vehicle and parts. Our analysis reveals significant differences between FMS users and non-users. First, the users of FMS differ in most of their quality management practices from the non-users. Second, although both groups emphasize quality as a strategic objective, significant differences in the cost of qality as well as in the use of quality management tools and techniques were found between the two groups. Finally, the FMS users place heavy emphasis on the HRM aspects of managing quality. The implications of these results are useful for both academics and practitioners