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2006

The problems of implementation of Total Quality

Management in Thai manufacturing SMEs
Panu Buranajarukorn
pb95@uow.edu.au

Peter R. Gibson
University of Wollongong, peterg@uow.edu.au

Guenter Arndt
University of Wollongong, garndt@uow.edu.au

http://ro.uow.edu.au/engpapers/1269
Publication Details
Buranajarukorn, P, Gibson, PR & Arndt, G, The problems of implementation of Total Quality Management in Thai manufacturing
SMEs, Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and Management Systems and Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers Conference, 2006, p
238-248, Thailand: APIEMS 2006.

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University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW
Library: research-pubs@uow.edu.au

Proceedings of the 7th Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and Management Systems Conference 2006
17-20 December 2006, Bangkok, Thailand

The Problems of Implementation of Total Quality

Management in Thai manufacturing SMEs
Panu Buranajarukorn
Naresuan University, Phitsanulok 65000 THAILAND
+663-163-2259, Email: b_panu@hotmail.com
Peter Gibson and Guenter Arndt
University of Wollongong, New South Wale, 2500 AUSTRALIA
+612-4221-3491, Email: {peterg, garndt)@uow.edu.au

Abstract. Thai manufacturing SMEs have played a major role in developing Thai economy, social and
employment. In this situation, they have been confronted by forceful overseas competitors, especially in lowcost producers such as China, India, Vietnam, etc. They need to upgrade organisational performance in order
to increasing their international competitiveness. However, most of Thai manufacturing SMEs have been
inadequate modern technology when compared to large enterprises. Therefore, management technique i.e.
TQM has been introduced to implement in Thai manufacturing SMEs for establishing a good quality
management system, developing human resources and increasing business performance. The questionnaire
was used as a tool for gathering data in this research. Firstly, it presented the main problems of establishment
of TQM in Thai manufacturing SMEs by following the seven criteria of TQA; Leadership, Strategic
Planning, Customer and Market Focus, Information and Analysis, Human Resource Focus, Process
Management, and Business Results. Secondly, the SWOT analysis was used for examining the Strengths and
Weaknesses and evaluating the Opportunities and Threats to Thai manufacturing SMEs. Finally, it found that
Thai manufacturing SMEs lacked in cooperating with Government units. All these problems may lead Thai
manufacturing SMEs to be unsuccessful implementation of TQM in their organisation, therefore they should
realise their problems and business environment, and then develop all aspects of management systems in
TQM and establish a strong partnership network with government.
Keywords: Problems, TQM, Thai manufacturing SMEs, TQA

1. INTRODUCTION
Thai manufacturing SMEs have played a major role in
increasing Thai GDP. However, there have been many
problems inside organisations that have created obstacles to
improving performance and confronted by fierce overseas
competitors. There appears to be a need for Total Quality
Management (TQM) that benefits from well-managed
organisation. TQM principles have been developed over
many years by Quality practitioners, the core concepts of its
approach were derived from three core principles; (1)
Achieving customer satisfaction, (2) Striving for continuous
improvement, and (3) Encouraging the full involvement of
the entire workforce.
TQM has been used by many larger Thai enterprises, but
there has been a slow up-take in Thai manufacturing SMEs.

: Corresponding Author

238

This study was based on literatures and the results of

questionnaire surveyed from 71 Thai manufacturing SMEs.
The paper presents the main problems of establishment of
TQM in Thai manufacturing SMEs by following the seven
criteria of Thailand Quality Award (TQA):- Leadership;
Strategic Planning; Customer and Market focus; Information
and Analysis; Human
Resource
focus;
Process
Management; and Business Results.
The SWOT analysis was used for examining the
Strengths and Weaknesses and evaluating the Opportunities
and Threats to Thai manufacturing.
Moreover, it found that Thai manufacturing SMEs lacked
in cooperating with Government units.
Therefore, Thai manufacturing SMEs should realise all
these problems and business environment, and then develop
all aspects of management systems in TQM and establish a
strong partnership network with government.

Panu Buranajarukorn

2. THAI MANUFACTURING SMEs

Most manufacturing enterprises throughout the world
are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) dependent on
their domestic markets to develop their businesses (Day,
2000; Freeman, 2000). In Thailand, the statistics (Leopairote,
1997) showed that most of manufacturing enterprises (over
90%) was SMEs which employed less than 200 (ISMED,
1999). According to Thanee (2004), he concluded that Thai
SMEs were increased from 799,033 (1997) to 1,639,427
(2002) enterprises. They have played a major role in
developing Thai economy, social and employment
(Leenabanchong, 1997). The contribution of SMEs to the
overall economy has been growing. It is estimated that they
provide more than half of the total employment, more than
75% of industrial jobs and more than half of the nations
GDP (Simachokdee, 2001b). The ISMED (1999) concluded
that the contribution of SMEs to Thai economic development
was as follows;
- to create jobs
- to add value to products
- to earn foreign income from exports
- to be producers, replacing imported products
- to generate positive business experience for new
entrepreneur
- to be a subcontractor or link with large companies
- to be a source of labour skills development
The nature of Thai manufacturing SMEs was different to
that of the large Thai enterprises and may differ from SMEs
in other countries, but as a rule, most were seeking local
domestic markets not global markets, engaging relatively
higher skilled employees, using basic technology, had a topdown management style, and senior/middle management
were employed with regard to their tangible/immediate ability
rather than their whole personality or potentiality (Umezawa
et al., 2000).
Compared with large enterprises, Thai manufacturing
SMEs products mostly are the result of labour-intensive
production not those based on high technology and
automation. They are however, more flexible in their
organisation and management than large organisations
because of their small vertical organisational structure
(Ghobadian and Gallear, 1996). No complex financial,
production or specialised management is needed, so they are
able to make rapid progress in achieving their goals once they
are committed (Sonthithai and Thavornbud, 2003). However,
they are largely unaware of the need to develop quality
management in their organisation (Simachokdee, 2001b).
Figure 1 below shows the difference of stages of development
in two firm sizes.

239

et al.

Stages of Development
R&D
Design/Engineering
Modification/Adaptation
Copy/Basic Manufacturing

Manufacturing Sectors

SMEs

Large
Enterprises

Figure 1: Stages of development of Thai manufacturers

Thai manufacturing SMEs problems are generated from
two main sources; the first is the Thai government. The
government units designed to assist the SMEs, but its slow
response when compared with other governments, in creating
appropriate legislation and establishing an Institute for SME
Development, affect the SMEs competitive chances
(Sakulsurarat, 2002); and the second problem for SMEs is
their internal management they have many internal
problems (FTI, 2001; DIP, 2003). From previous research,
the following figure was developed showing internal and
external problems of Thai manufacturing SMEs. Uncertainty
about external factors also contributed to the overall
difficulties. This interplay between these factors
(Buranajarukorn et al., 2003) is illustrated in Figure 2 below.
External Problems: Areas of Uncertainty
Management Innovations, Customer Needs, Supplier Capacity, Government
Support, IT, Technology changes etc.

Internal Problems

Problems in
Management control, Marketing, Production system, Personnel
management
Lack of Investment for HRM, R&D, Advanced technology,
Continuous Improvement programme, Additional
infrastructure development, Management support development

Lack of Organisational Competitiveness

SME Organisation
Figure 2: Internal and external problems
manufacturing SMEs

of Thai

In addition, Milintasoot (2000) looked critically at the

problems of personnel management in Thai manufacturing
SMEs which seem to have been caused by the Eastern
management style. This was one in which there is a close
relationship between employer and employees. Employees

Panu Buranajarukorn

are treated as family members with the employer regards as

head of the family and in charge of all management decisions.
This has led to major problems whenever the scope of
management was expanded. It is especially noticeable in the
Human Resource Management area.

3. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT CHANGES

The worldwide industry has been affected by the
increasing global competitiveness from international
corporations (Porter, 1990; Gadenin, 2000) and cheap labour
source countries (Dollar and Driemeier, 2000). Businesses
today cannot ignore the need to increase their performance
level if they are to succeed in global markets and to advance
to a World Class Manufacturing performance (Jarnchai et al.,
1997; Oakland, 2001). The two-side effects of global
competition on Thai manufacturing SMEs shows in Figure 3
below.

et al.

was believed that the FTA principle was an effective catalyst

for improving competitiveness, promoting sustainable
economic growth and alleviating poverty (Secretariat of
WTO, 2003). The importance of FTAs to Thai industries was
the recognition that:- (1) FTAs will increase the number of
competitors from abroad into the Thai domestic market which
was previously largely occupied by Thai manufacturers; (2)
FTAs will generate an opportunity for Thai manufacturers to
export products to international markets; and (3) FTAs will
force Thai manufacturers to upgrade their organisational
performance if they want to protect their share of domestic
and penetrate into international markets.
From a study of market positioning of exports in 1996
and 2000, Dhanani and Scholtes (2002) discovered that Thai
industries had decreased their share of world markets. Figure
4 below shows the current competitive situation which was
confronted by 71 Thai manufacturing SMEs. Most
percentages were in aggressive (54.93%) and moderate
(35.21%) competitive situation, respectively. They were poor
performance in administrative and technology when
compared with their competitors.

Global competition
Number of enterprises
45

54.93%

40

Increase in number of (potential)

competitors from abroad

35
30

35.21%

25
20
15

Aggressive competitive situation

10
5

4.23%

5.63%

0
None

Negative effects

Positive effects

Unawareness of
competition and Lack
of performance
improvement

Readjustment of
administration and
product
characteristics

Organisational
incompetence

World Class
Performance

Market Lost

Market Win

Little

Moderate

Aggressive

The Current Competitive Situation

Figure 4: The current competitive situation of Thai

manufacturing SMEs
The competitive situation has led to Thai manufacturing
SMEs being concerned about their problems and they need to
consider changing their ways of operating to attain a high
business performance. They need to realign manufacturing
strategies and integrate them with their capabilities,
technology, human factors, management approaches,
organisational factors, and performance measurement.

4. QUALITY AS A BUSINESS STRATEGY

Figure 3: The two-side effects of global competition

The Thai government was committed by the agreements
to increase exports (APEC Secretariat, 1998) and abandon
protective tariffs by negotiating FTAs with other
governments i.e. U.S., Australia, China, India and Japan. It

240

Quality is as important as low-cost and innovation

strategies (Hay, 1996), as a business strategy to win in an
aggressive market situation against a number of global
competitors. This also proved by a number of famous quality

Panu Buranajarukorn

gurus (Deming, 1986; Juran, 1986; Crosby, 1979) that

successful manufacturers consider the implementation of
Quality Management (QM) as the essential part of their
business strategy.
However, the study found that most Thai SMEs
manufacturing strategies were focused on Cost rather than
Quality, Flexibility and Delivery (see Figure 5 below). The
results show that the Thai manufacturing SMEs preferred,
generally, to use an improved cost strategy to overcome
market resistance and refused to use Quality or some other
strategy.
%
90

84.51

80

et al.

continual quality improvement. TQM also needs the efforts of

all employees to develop a better basic infrastructure.

5. APLLICATION OF TQM
Many QM approaches have been introduced in many
countries. In Thailand, there appears to be three main reasons
for their implementation;
(1) to use as a tool and techniques for improvement e.g.
QCs, SQC, 5S
(2) to obtain a Quality Certificate e.g. ISO 9000: 1994,
ISO 9000: 2000
(3) to achieve a Business Excellence approval e.g.
TQM, Six Sigma

70
60

Buranajarukorn et al. (2003) concluded the current

situation of quality management system (QMS) in Thai
manufacturing enterprises in Table 1 below.

49.3

50
40

32.39

30

22.54

20

Table 1:

10

Current situation of QMS in Thai manufacturing

enterprises

0
Cost

Quality

Flexibility

Delivery

QMS

Number of enterprises

Large

SMEs

A great number

Some

A few number

No system

Figure 5: Thai SMEs manufacturing strategies

ISO9000

Thai manufacturing SMEs need to become aware of the

advantages to be gained from initiating the development of a
QMS as their strategy. It can show the typical of development
of QMS in Figure 6 below.

TQM

The implementation of QM in Thai manufacturing

SMEs has not made much progress because of internal
obstacles such as poor basic infrastructure, shortage of
resources, human resource issues etc.
This study found that most Thai manufacturing SMEs
preferred to implement a Continuous Improvement (CI)
propramme and Best Practice (GMP/HACCP). Half of the
surveyed enterprises had implemented SQC and QA
(ISO9000), but most had not implemented TQM. This result
is given in Figure 7 below.
Percentage of companies

80

Figure 6: Typical stages of development of QMS in Thai

manufacturing SMEs

69.02

67.6

70

61.97

60
49.3 50.7

50.7 49.3

50

Figure 6 above shows the typical stages of the

development of QMSs in Thai manufacturing SMEs to
compete in global markets. Market pressures have forced
enterprises to raise their quality standard to the minimum
necessary to obtain a Quality Certification. Mere Quality
Assurance (QA) is inadequate for coping with international
competition, TQM is necessary as a means of guarantee of

40

Implemented
30.98

30
20
10
0
CI

241

Not implemented

38.03
32.4

Best practices

SQC

QA (ISO9000)

TQM

Panu Buranajarukorn

Figure 7: Percentage of Thai manufacturing SMEs which

had and had not implemented QM
Most Thai manufacturing SMEs are interested in
implementing a QM programme (SQC, CI, QA, TQM and
Best Practices), but the percentage of Thai manufacturing
SMEs which have fully implemented any QM is still less than
50%, especially TQM (5.63%). This may because only a few
employees understood the theory and practical application of
TQM (67.61%). The progressive status of implementation of
TQM in Thai manufacturing SMEs is given in Figure 8
below.

P2
Problem
(P)
P3

P1

The author suggests three strategies to deal with these

problems (see Figure 9 below).

Strategies

Problems
They are not
interested in TQM

Change
management
Culture/ Attitude/
Awareness/ Mindset/
Behaviour

They are interested

in TQM, but they
dont know how to
implement it

Total = 100%

Not interested in TQM

(38.03%)

et al.

Training &
Education
Theory/ Practice/
Planning/ Programme/
Evaluation

Interested in TQM
(61.97%)

Not implemented
TQM (33.99%)

Implemented
TQM (27.98%)

Partially
Implemented
TQM (22.35%)

Fully Implemented
TQM (5.63%)

They dont have

someone/basic
infrastructure to
help/support them to
succeed in
implementing TQM

Maintaining QA,
Expert assistance,
Self-assessment by
using Business
Excellence criteria

Figure 9: The three strategies to deal with the problems of

implementation of TQM

Success
Figure 8: Progressive status and Stages of problem of
implementation of TQM in Thai manufacturing
SMEs
The results in Figure 8 above show that the successful
implementation of TQM was only 5.63%. There are three
stages of problems whenever implementing TQM in
organisation. These can conclude as follows;
Problem 1 (P1) = Management/Employees are
not interested in implementing TQM.
Problem 2 (P2) = Management/Employees are
interested in implementing TQM, but they dont
know how to do it.
Problem 3 (P3) = Management/Employees do
not have someone/basic infrastructure to
help/support them to succeed in implementing
TQM.

6. ACHIEVEMENT OF TQA
Thailand as same as many countries, has established its
own Quality Awards named Thailand Quality Award (TQA).
It provides for self-assessment of the degree of the
performance excellence in the use of TQM. There are seven
criteria at the centre, these are: (1) Leadership; (2) Strategic
Planning; (3) Customer and Market Focus; (4) Information
and Analysis; (5) Human Resource Focus; (6) Process
Management and (7) Business Results
In this study, it can classify the achievement of Quality
Awards in Thai manufacturing SMEs into three levels. These
are shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2: The three levels of achievement of Quality Awards
in Thai manufacturing SMEs
Level
No achievement (any Q award)
Low achievement (only Local/National)
High achievement (at least International)

242

%
32.39%
29.58%
38.03%

Panu Buranajarukorn

From Table 2, it conclude that most Thai manufacturing

SMEs (61.97%) had never achieved any award or only
achieved a Local or National Quality Award. Only 38.03% of
enterprises had achieved International Quality Awards. The
achievement of an International Quality Award should be
promoted as necessary as well as the realization that they
need to develop their organisational performance to achieve
this award standard.
There are confusion between percentages of market
targets and level of achievement of Quality Award in Thai
manufacturing SMEs. The study found that most Thai
manufacturing SMEs sought a Quality Award for Domestic
rather than International markets, even if they focused more
on International markets (see Figure 10 below).
Focus on market targets

et al.

6. PROBLEMS OF SME ORGANISATION

The problems in this study were grouped into two
areas; (1) by Resources and (2) by Operational tasks.
Resource problems are related to operational task problems
and both problems effect on implementation of TQM. These
effects are shown in Figure 12 below.

Resource
Problems

Operational
Problems

Material
People
Machine
Money

Production
Administration
Maintenance
Quality control

Problems of implementing TQM

Figure 12: Effects of two problem areas on implementing
TQM
Achieving Quality Awards for

Figure 10: The significant difference of the percentage of

enterprises which focused on two market
targets and level of achievement of Quality
Awards for Domestic/International markets
Followed by seven criteria of TQA, the study shows that
approximately 50% of Thai manufacturing SMEs do not
achieve all the criteria and only 22.54% achieved the criteria
of Leadership, 19.72% achieved Strategic Planning, but only
4.23% achieved the criteria of Information and an analysis.
These results are given in Figure 11 below.
%

36.62

36.62
22.54

98.59

94.37

100
90

94.37
71.89

80
70
60
50
40

31.43
25.37

30
20

17.65

13.45

10
0
Materials

People

Machines

Money

(a) Resource Problems

%
100
90

42.25

95.77

95.77

94.37

91.55

80
70
19.72

60
50
40

4.23

30
20

20

16.18

13.24

13.43

10
0
Production

Pr
oc
es
s

er
an
d
C
us
to
m

45.07

M
ar
ke
tf
oc
us
m
an
ag
em
en
t
H
R
fo
Bu
cu
si
s
ne
ss
re
su
lts
Le
a
de
St
rsh
ra
te
In
ip
gi
fo
cp
rm
la
at
nn
io
na
in
g
nd
A
na
ly
sis

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

This study shows the significant effects of two problem

areas on implementing TQM (see Figure 13 below). Most
Thai manufacturing SMEs (more than 70%) have occurred all
problems. These obstacles are needed to be eliminated in
order to optimise their use of resources in organisation and
work efficiently.

Administration

Maintenance

Quality control

(b) Operational task problems

% of enterprises

Figure 11: The Achievement of Criteria of TQA

243

% of frequent problems

Panu Buranajarukorn

Figure 13: Percentage of (a) Resource problems occurred and

(b) Operational task problems occurred

7. THE SWOT ANALYSIS

The SWOT analysis is the method used for identifying
the Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), and examining the
Opportunities (O) and Threats (T) to Thai manufacturing
SMEs. There are two-side effects on organisational
performance; positive (+) and negative (-). They are
illustrated in Figure 14 below.

Negative effects
T(-)

T(-)

T(-)

T(-)

W(-)

Positive effects
O(+)

W(-)
W(-)

O(+)
S(+)

T(-)

S(+)
S (+)

W(-)
W(-)
T(-)

O(+)
S(+)

Organisational
performance

W(-)
T(-)

O(+)
O(+)

S(+)

W(-)

T(-)

O(+)

S(+)

O(+)
O(+)

S(+)
O (+)

Where;
Internal factors; S = Strength (+)
W = Weakness (-)
External factors; O = Opportunity (+)
T = Threat (-)

Thai manufacturing
SMEs
Business environment

Figure 14: Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities

(O), and Threats (T) on Organisational
performance in Thai manufacturing SMEs
In this study, the many issues under these categories
uncovered by the SWOT analysis are summarised as follows;
Strengths
Characteristics of selected companies
Market focus
Organisational Structure
Interest in QM Implementation
Awareness of benefits of QM implementation
Level of readiness of organisation for development of
Business performance to achieve competitiveness

244

et al.

Some organisational aspects e.g. Work satisfaction, Gender

equity and opportunity, Autonomous
Work (Selfdirecting)/Work freedom, Trust, Leadership, Employment
relation,
Quality
awareness,
Work
commitment/participation, Morale, Quality of working
conditions/Job security/Well-being
Methods for solving quality problems
Interest in government assistance
Requirement of improving skills for front-line operators
Weaknesses
Management styles
Focus of manufacturing strategy
Quality awards entries and its achievement
Implementation of any QM
Number of person who were knowledgeable about TQM
Achievement of criteria of TQA
Internal problems (Resources & Operational tasks)
Some organisational aspects e.g. Continuous learning,
Work cooperation/Teamwork, Long term goals,
Continuous improvement mindset, Scientific decision
making methods, Linkage between employees and
organisation goals
Strategic human resource planning
Training in QM courses
Policy deployment
Document management systems
Performance management and Leadership systems
Improvement programmes and utilisation of the
improvement tools and techniques
Involving in government assistance programmes
Opportunities
Increase of International markets
Establishment of TQA
Government assistance programmes
Many QM practices and Improvement tools and techniques
were introduced in Thailand
Government policy and provision of government assistance
programmes
Threats
Increase of the competitive situation in both domestic and
international markets
FTAs
Higher customer expectation of quality of products
Requirement of QA and QM programmes
Need to achieve Quality Awards
Lack of investment in modern technology and need to
focus on human capability

8. GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE

Panu Buranajarukorn

Government recognised that SMEs are the main source

of the Thai economic growth and their success is needed to
sustain Thai competitiveness, quality growth, and lasting
properity (Phoosuphanusorn and Treerapongpichit, 2002).
The strategy used to increase the quality and productivity of
products is the utilisation of technological and managerial
innovation, especially human resource development. This
strategy aimed to encourage entrepreneurs, both existing and
new, to develop their skills and the capabilities of their
employees (ISMED, 1999).
The Thai government provided two master plans for
helping SMEs, one short, the other long term. The short-plan
focused on solving financial problems in SMEs such as
liquidity which appeared after the Asian economic crisis
(1997) by providing investment capital for increasing the
SMEs competitiveness. The long-term plan was to improve
SME performances in order to obtain sustainable growth in
the global market. This included legislation to assist SMEs,
the establishment of an Institute for SME Development and
government support for SME development programmes
generally. The support programmes included consulting,
training and providing seminars, market promotion, funding,
and information services (Soontorncharernnon, 1997).
Although the government has provided many assistance
programmes for developing Thai manufacturing SMEs
organisational performance, these programmes seemed to be
unproductive. Simachokdee (2001a) criticised the problems
of Thai manufacturing SMEs into two issues; the internal
problems of Thai manufacturing SMEs and the accessibility
of government services. Figure 15 below shows that there
was a gap between government support and SME needs for
assistance. Most SMEs cannot access to government
information and some deny their involvement in a
programme. The government needs to broadly promote an
assistance programme, develops a new programme which
relates to the SME needs (S1) and encourages SMEs
entrepreneur to participate in government assistance
programmes (S2).
S1

Overlap

Government support
Business
information
Government
units

Gap
Government
assistance

SME needs
Gap
Increasing
organisational
performance

et al.

From the results of this study, it found that

approximately 67.61% of Thai manufacturing SMEs had
experienced some government assistance. It should be noted
that less than 40% of the services on government offer were
taken up. The most used of the government assistance
programmes are training of entrepreneurs (39.44%) and
attendance at courses on the Quality Certificate requirements
(30.99%). However, there are some other services used by
less than 10% of companies. These included Testing and
Evaluating of Products, Infrastructure, Marketing, Financial
Loan, Training in Financial Analysis, Taxation, and
information Technology (see Figure 16 below).

Information technology

2.82

Texation

7.04

Training in financial analysis

8.45

Financial loan

8.45

Marketing

8.45

Infrastructure

9.86

Testing & Evaluating of products

9.86

%
0

10

12

Figure 16: Experiences with government assistance

programmes less than 10% of enterprises
The government needed to be clearly aware of the needs
of Thai manufacturing SME and provide strategies, vision
and mission statements for implementing its assistance
policies. Alone, Thai manufacturing SMEs, cannot develop
their organisational performance, they need to develop
linkages between their business partner in order to gain
business information and assistance programmes from as
many sources as possible.

SMEs
9. MODEL DEVELOPMENT
This study developed three sub-models; (1) Model of
Problems in Thai manufacturing SMEs, (2) the Model of
Government Assistance and (3) the Model of Developing
TQM. The model is illustrated in Figure 17.

S2

Figure 15: Gap - Government support and SME Needs

245

Panu Buranajarukorn

et al.

Model of Problems in Thai manufacturing SMEs

Quality Practices

Human Resources
Ineffective QMS

Management Functions
and Operational Tasks

Basic Infrastructure and

Organisational Aspects

Related problems

The government clearly understands Thai manufacturing SME needs to develop

QMS in order to increase Organisational performance and competitiveness
Thai manufacturing
SMEs realise their
internal problems
and have an effort
for developing the
Human Aspects in
implementing QMS

Model of Government Assistance

Strategy1: Communication, Information, and Education
Strategy2: Provision of Effective SME Development programmes
Strategy3: Improvement of Work Systems
Strategy4: Establishment of Basic Infrastructure
Strategy5: Development of Quality Management Systems - TQM

The government implements its policies and strategies effectively and develops
programmes continuously for assisting Thai manufacturing SMEs

Level 0: No QMS

To Establish
Organisational Infrastructure

Level 1: QMS, No Q Cer.

Level 2: QMS, No Q Cer.,
Partial TQM

To Develop
Organisational Culture

Level 3: QMS, Q Cer.

Level 4: QMS, Q Cer.,
Partial TQM
Self-assessment from
TQA

Feedback

To Develop
Human Resources

P D
A C

Level 5: QMS, Q Certification, Full implementation of TQM

246

HR Development

QMS Development

Model of Developing a Quality Management System

Panu Buranajarukorn

et al.

Figure 17: The Relationship of three sub-models: Problems, Government Assistance, and Developing TQM

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Panu Buranajarukorn

et al.

University of Wollongong, Australia. Now, he is waiting

for the result of thesis. His teaching and research
interests include Ergonomics, Safety, Engineering
Management and Quality Management, especially TQM.
His email address is <b_panu@hotmail.com> or
<panub@nu.ac.th>

Umezawa, Y.; Tsuchiya, S. and Kawagushi, S.

(2000). Problems and Difficulties in developing
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Policy Deployment. TQM Symposium 4, Bangkok, (2-2)(2-7).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Peter Gibson is an Associate Professor in School of
Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering,
University of Wollongong, Australia. He has 29
publications which emphasised Supply Chain
Management, Business Management, Information
Technology, Quality Management, SME Management
and E-commerce. His research has focused on Supply
Chain Management. Now, he is the Director of Studies
Postgraduate Coursework in Faculty of Engineering,
University of Wollongong, Australia. His email address
is <peterg@uow.edu.au>

I would like to express my sincere and grateful thanks to

Assoc. Prof. Peter Gibson and Prof. Guenter Arndt, for
their imparted knowledge, kind assistance, useful advice
and valuable comments. On a personal note, the most
important thanks to my family members for support and
morale.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Panu Buranajarukorn is a Lecturer in Department of
Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Naresuan
University, Phitsanulok, Thailand. He received a M.Eng.
(Industrial Engineering) from Department of Industrial
Engineering, Faculty of Engineeering, Chulalongkorn
Univeristy in 1997. His thesis is in Ergonomics field,
named Effects of Heat Load on Physical Fatigue at
Work, supervised by Professor Dr. Kitti Intranont. Now,
he has submitted Ph.D thesis of Engineering
Manufacturing field. He focused on Implementation of
Total Quality Management (TQM) in Thai
manufacturing SMEs, supervised by Associate Professor
Peter Gibson and Professor Guenter Arndt at School of
Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering,

Guenter Arndt is Honorary Professor of Manufacturing

Engineering in the School of Mechanical, Materials and
Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong,
Australia. He has a very distinguished international
career in Manufacturing research, specialising in Total
Quality Management (TQM), Japanese Management,
Continuous Improvement programmes, Total Productive
Maintenance (TPM), Manufacturing Management,
Systems and Strategy, Just-in-Time (JIT) and their
application in Developing Countries. His email address
is<garndt@uow.edu.au>

248