Purpose – The textiles, clothing, and footwear (TCF) industry has struggled in Australia since the government commenced dismantling tariffs. By sourcing from Asia, middlemen undercut established suppliers, and retail chains set benchmark low prices with their imported “house” labels. The...

Reports the results of a survey of quality management practices (QMP) in Australian service companies. Although service industries are much more important contributors to GNP and employment than manufacturing industries, most quality management literature is oriented toward manufacturing. We...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the nature of collaborative arrangements that partners in Australian hospital supply chains use to manage inventories. Design/methodology/approach – A case study involving a supply chain network of ten healthcare...

This paper uses regression analysis of factors obtained from measured variables to find statistical relationships between investment in advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), the planning effort associated with that investment and operational performance of manufacturing firms operating in...

This paper reports on data pertaining to outsourcing collected from a survey administered in 2002 in Australia. The underlying assumption was that outsourcing is becoming popular for sound business reasons such as economies of scale and enabling executives to concentrate on core business...

Purpose – This paper aims to report the results of a study focusing on the competencies and skills of supply chain managers, their use of supply chain technologies and future challenges in supply chain management (SCM), including issues relating to globalisation, environment, and supply chain...

This study attempts to examine the impact of service quality dimensions on customer loyalty, on two levels of retail relationships: person‐to‐person (salesperson level) and person‐to‐firm (store level). A total of 1,261 surveys were administered to shoppers who were leaving a large chain...

This paper focuses on various aspects of internal and external audits carried out to obtain and maintain ISO 14001 (the International Standard for the Environment released in September 1996) certification. The paper is based on the findings of a questionnaire survey mailed to ISO 14001 certified...

Focuses on an attempt to determine whether or not there is a link between TQM and learning organizations. Data from three TQM companies are tested against a series of building blocks for developing learning organizations. Total quality management tends to create the environment ecessary for...