Combining Quality Management and Process Innovations - Cases of Finnish Glass Manufacturing

摘要

The challenge to stabilize processes and make them more reliable is one of the main quality development challenges. There is also a need to improve the processes and a need to introduce innovative changes. How are these efforts managed and what kinds of practices emerge when combining quality work and process innovating? The three cases under study are Finnish glass-manufacturing companies, representing quite different fields within the industry. The action logic is also a factor, which differentiates the case companies: they are categorized as production intensive, market intensive and knowledge intensive. The study aims to clarify how quality management practices and process innovation practices differ in the case companies and how the practices of combining vary with the action logic.