Gestão Da Qualidade

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, VOL. 13, NO. 6, 2002 , 877 - 890

Quality management practices in a Flexible
Manufacturing Systems (FMS) environment
Mohamed A. Youssef1 & Bassam Al-Ahmady2
1
2

Department of Management and Decision Sciences, Norfolk State University, Ver mont, USA &
Faculty of Commerce, University of Ain Shams, Cairo, Egypt

abstract The use of Flexible Manufacturing Systems, hereafter FMS, and quality management practices cannot be separated. However, most of the studies by academics and practitioners in this area of inquiry, fail to examine this relationship empirically and comprehensively. This paper ® lls this void by examining how the use of FMS aþ ects quality management practices in manufactur ing
® rms. The uniquenes s of our study is that it overcomes the shortcomings of previous studies by broadly examining a number of quality management practices that range from the importance of quality to the use of quality tools and techniques. The Human Resource Management (HRM) aspect of quality management practices wa s also examined in ter ms of employee involvement and participation. The data use d in this explorator y study were collected from 102 companies in the following US industries: aerospace, electronics, industrial and farm equipment, metal product, and motor vehicle and parts.
Our analysis reveals signi® cant diþ erences between FMS users and non-users. First, the users of
FMS diþ er in most of their quality management practices from the non-users. Second, although both g roups emphasize quality as a strategic objective, signi® cant di þ erences in the cost of quality 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.
Introduction
The turbulent and ever-changin g business environment, especially in the

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