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Total quality management in a public transport organisation in Hong Kong

1996; Elsevier BV; Volume: 14; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0263-7863(96)84515-7

1873-4634

C. M. Tam, Moses YT Hui,

Accounting and Organizational Management

In Hong Kong, most transport services are provided by large public organisations. The quality of the services is continuously criticised by the public. Critics describe them to be insensitive to complaints and quality improvement. Their operations are not in line with the recent quality developments in most markets; e.g. quality assurance and total quality management (TQM). In this connection, staff of the infrastructure and building department of the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) have instituted the ‘internal computer index’ to monitor the performance of departments within the KCRC in 1994. This paper had detailed their first attempt to bring in the ‘internal customer’ and ‘continuous quality monitoring’ concepts which are originated from the total quality management approach to develop an ‘internal customer satisfaction index’ as a tool for continuing quality enhancement, to identify areas for improvement, arousing the different surveyed units, and finally, to provide a systematic way to lift quality awareness within the KCRC. The scheme was initiated in 1994. From June to December 1994, the implementation of the scheme has recorded a slight progressive improvement in the performance index, inferring that the approach can provide an effective tool in upgrading the quality of services provided by the infrastructure and building department of the KCRC. The study also highlights the importance of total involvement within an organisation in executing the scheme.