A Comparative Study Between China And U.S On Quality Management Practices

In today’s economic globalization, operating in a global economy that is rapidlyevolving–ever increasing level of global competition and technological development,shortening of product life cycle, the Chinese manufacturing industry is faced withunprecedented opportunities and challenges. In order to gain a place in the globalcompetition, as well as achieve the goals of high-quality, efficiency, sophisticated,low-expense, the enterprises must be concerned about the quality managementdevelopment, explore the quality management suited to their own needs. Understandingthe similarities and differences of managerial beliefs between Chinese and U.S.manufacturing managers can have major implications for these managers workingjointly in various contexts. This study compares the results of a survey gathered fromChinese manufacturing managers with that from U.S. managers. And how thesesimilarities and differences would affect the level of implementation in salientmanufacturing practices, such as time-based manufacturing practices?Firstly, this thesis review the previous literature and research work related to thequality management. Secondly, The questionnaire is divided into two parts, the one isabout the human factor, include customer orientation, beliefs on investing in facilitiesand equipment, Beliefs on working with others, beliefs on making decisions that areglobal, beliefs on management control, beliefs on integrating with suppliers, the anotheris the Material factor, include reengineering setups, cellular manufacturing, qualityimprovement efforts, preventive maintenance, and pull production. Empirical analysis isdone with the software tool SPSS17. Finally, the differences in quality managementbetween China and America are pointed out according to the comparison, and possiblereasons contributing to those differences are explored and the correspondingsuggestions on quality management in China given.