26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Organisations in South Africa ever more than before need Total Quality Management (TQM) in terms of organisational culture and supply chain system thinking in providing outstanding products and services to their customers. Although TQM has been proposed to improve organisational performance it is perceived that some organisations have not accomplished much over the years. Accomplishing TQM and supply chain strategy is challenging and is based on the organisational performance measures in terms of (i) Quality Improvement, (ii) Product / Service Quality, (iii) Customer Satisfaction, (iv) Employee Satisfaction and (v) Supply Chain and supplier Performance. Moreover, to remain competitive, TQM and supply chain systems thinking should be should be synchronised end-to-end. Achieving this is a complex endeavour and involves business strategy and technology which focusses on TQM and supply chain systems, within a structured business system. Current research in both manufacturing and service industries in South Africa revealed that TQM and supply chain strategy have an influence on organisational performance measures and plays an important role in the performance and success of an organisation. This paper debates, by means of research, conducted, which is generally is understood as “total systems thinking” as a basic “concept” towards TQM and supply chain strategy and is much broader than what is normally accepted in the industry. The “concept” includes synchronising every process and sub-processes where each of these factors has its own set of defined objectives, involving workflow, cut across departmental boundaries and require the input of resources from several departments within an organisation. The results of this study have a methodological significance and provided valuable information in the development of a measurement framework assisting identifying gaps that may exist between TQM and supply chain strategy. Furthermore, the results obtained from the study suggest a range of possible solutions which may assist organizations to obtain the desired TQM and supply chain performance level. Keywords: total quality management, end-to-end, organisational performance, supply chain