This study investigates whether quality management has developed to such an extent thatretailers, service repair organisations and consumers are satisfied with product and repairservice quality provided by South African manufacturing companies. To investigate theseaspects, the colour television industry has been selected because it contains variousmanufacturing companies of varying sizes and characters, employing different quality policiesand performances. It offers relatively standardised products and services, which facilitatesintercompany comparisons and employs a simple flow type assembly line process that isrepresentative of other mass production industries.The hypotheses are tested by interviewing four selected populations by means of carefullyconstructed questionnaires, namely a retail population, a repair service population, aconsumer population and a manufacturing population. The empirical results are statisticallyevaluated in terms of the various manufacturers ability to provide satisfactory product andrepair service quality. Consumers and repair service organisations are selected because theyrepresent a broad spectrum of the population with varying, but important opinions on productand repair service quality. Retailers selling colour television receivers are also selected asthey play an important role in the management of quality and vary from small independentretailers to large chain stores and discounters. The results obtained from this study showthat:• there is a need from the retailers, service repair organisations and consumers for theSouth African manufacturers to improve the quality of colour television receivers• there is a need by the consumers and the retailers for the manufacturers to improvetheir repair service quality• there is a need to improve the quality control procedures employed by the colourtelevision manufacturers.
展开▼
