Assess the impact of total quality management practices on customer retention a case of Isuzu South Africa

Introduction

This research study is about use of TQM in Isuzu to impact customer retention in positive manner. Total quality management (TQM) is the ongoing procedure of identifying and minimising or eradicating defects in production (Oakland,2014). Maintenance of the total quality management is very crucial process in the automobile sector because this industry faces critical challenges related to improvement in the sustainability aspects in the overall process of manufacturing parts of vehicles and their assembly. The quality concerns are also associated with governance of controlling the emission control from vehicles (Giampieri et al., 2020).

The key purpose of this research study is to examine the role and impact of total quality management (TQM) practices on the customer retention level in Isuzu which is an automobile company in Johannesburg in South Africa. The research study in the light of this research aim is focused to attain certain expected outcomes. For instance; it will help to identity the key features of total quality management practices that are vital for the customer retention purpose. The research will also examine the core total quality management practices that are followed by Isuzu South Africa. The research will examine the role of TQM in Isuzu to retain customers in the long run.  

Research Context: Background

In the present business context, total quality management is major requisite for automobile companies at global level. The automobile industry in South Africa is well flourished and in the past decades it has gained good growth. The manufacturers of the automobile parts now target South Africa as a favourable destination for establishment of their plants. In South African automobile industry, large investments are made for export of the vehicles parts and vehicles in the other countries (Hussain and van Waveren, 2009). The vehicles that are assembled in South Africa are sold at the global level. The South African automobile companies therefore now are striving to have tough competition with the other global companies and hence are focusing and investing on the total quality management aspects.

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The Research Problem

All Isuzu business locations have obtained ISO 9001:2015 accreditation, which is a global standard for quality management. Isuzu has been working to improve its operational quality through these approaches. The Isuzu Group is addressing the following concerns to enhance commercial activities: Product Quality improvement, Service Quality Improvement, and Operation Quality Improvement (Isuzu, 2022). Isuzu procures many components and materials from other suppliers for its products. Quality issues in purchased products cause major inconvenience for our customers.

Isuzu has developed a quality management structure for products acquired from suppliers to guarantee a consistent supply of high-quality products to its facilities while fostering confidence with the suppliers. In the future, we will persist in quality improvement initiatives with our business partners and work towards enhancing our supply chain(Isuzu, 2022). The main issue in front of Isuzu is to maintain the quality equivalent to and even at improved level than its competitors at both local and global level. This is because without quality maintenance it cannot retain its customers in the long run that is vital for its business survival and sustainability.

Aim of the Study

The aim of this research study is have critical evaluation of the impact of total quality management (TQM) practices of the business on the customer retention. The research has been conducted in the specific context of Isuzu which is an automobile company in South Africa.

Research Objectives

o To examine the total quality management practices that are followed by Isuzu South Africa
o To determine the impact of TQM practices on the level of customer retention in the automobile industry
o To find out the key measures that can be adopted by Isuzu in order to increase the degree of customer retention in the near futur

Research Questions

o What are the core total quality management practices that are followed by Isuzu South Africa?
o How do TQM practices impact on the level of customer retention in the automobile industry?
o What are the strategic measures that can be adopted by Isuzu in order to increase the degree of customer retention in the near future?

Justification or Rationale of the Study

The subject of this research study which is Total quality management is well researched in the past research studies in multiple context, however, in particular context to Isuzu which is South African automobile company, no research was conducted in the past and hence, this is the first rationale point behind doing this research study. This research is conducted with consideration of multiple beneficiaries.

Firstly, the research will prove beneficial for the operations and quality managers of Isuzu who will be benefited to know the ways in which they can use TQM practices in their operational process in order to have customer retention in both short term and long term basis. The research study will also be beneficial for the students and future researchers in terms of adding new knowledge in their existing knowledge base in about role of TQM and its approaches to customer retention. They will also get new ideas for conducting their own research studies on this subject matter.

Literature Review

Concept of Total Quality Management

According to Saffar and Obeidat(2020) total quality management is basically used in the form of management philosophy that is focused on improvement in the organisational products, services and core process with the consideration of the needs and expectations of the customers. The focus of the TQM practices in on improvement of customer satisfaction level and improvement in the organisational performance as whole.

However, in other words ofLuthra et al.(2020) and Asad, Chethiyar and Ali (2020) Total Quality Management (TQM) aims to establish a unique organisational culture where all members work together to fulfil customers’ demands and wants efficiently and cost-effectively. TQM has gained significance for organisations by lowering costs, boosting revenues and productivity, enhancing customer happiness, attaining competitive advantage, and yielding high returns.

According to Abbas (2020) implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) in institutions is necessary to achieve international quality certifications, improve the organization’s reputation with external customers, foster a shared sense of purpose, teamwork, and trust among individuals, and strengthen the connection to the work environment.

Concept of Customer Retention

According to Abbas (2020) customer retention refers to a company’s capacity to transform customers into repeat purchasers and deter them from transitioning to a competitor. Cavaliere et al. (2021) affirmed that customer retention measures the satisfaction of your current customers with your product and service quality.In the viewpoint of Opele, Tongo and Ajayi (2021) customer retention is a metric that gauge customer loyalty, or an organization’s capacity to maintain its customers over a period of time. Aside from determining the quantity of loyal consumers, customer retention can indicate or forecast customer contentment, repurchase behaviour, customer involvement, and emotional connections to a company.

Role of Total Quality Management for Customer Retention

As per the research study conducted by Ali, Hilman and Gorondutse (2020) In the marketing practices total quality management holds a very important and significant place for winning the loyalty of the customers and the loyal customers are retained with the organisations in long run. Furthermore, García-Alcaraz et al (2021) explored that TQM practices have a direct influence on the customer satisfaction level. In collective manner, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction give rise to the improved level of customer satisfaction.

In contrast to this, another study conducted byKalogiannidis (2021) reflected that total quality management practices are vital for improvement in the product quality level and improved quality of the products retain the customers with the same brand in the long run.
Another study conducted by Othman et al. (2020) reflected that total quality management practices are also vital for improvement in the level of customer relationship in the organisations. With the help of TQM practices the companies improve the attributes of their products that ultimately result into improvement in increasing awareness among the customers about the specific product features and this aspect keep them engaged with the business in the long run.

In this series, the study conducted by Gopi and Samat (2020) reflected that different quality attributes are vital for the customer retention purpose. In the current market scenario, there is huge demand of the quality-based products among the customers and for the same purpose, the total quality management practices prove very much supportive for the companies to enhance the level of customer satisfaction and customer retention to a good level.

Khan, Mirza and Khushnood (2020) explored that total quality management is a macro-management philosophy focused on continuously enhancing the production and delivery of products or services to meet customer needs more effectively and efficiently than competitors. This approach involves the participation of all employees under leadership. Jumady (2020) explored that total quality management involves all personnel dedicating themselves to continuously improving business operations to fulfil client expectations and requirements.

Theoretical Underpinning

Deming’s Theory is a management philosophy rooted in systems theory, initially developed for application in the automobile sector alongside Toyota (Adawiyah, Pramuka and Sholikhah, 2020). This systems-focused improvement methodology proved to be applicable to other industries, including healthcare.Deming’s Theory posits that a solution can always be found inside the system itself.Deming’s quality concept has significantly influenced the development of today’s manufacturing and service sectors (Murenga and Njuguna, 2020). This theory focuses on continuous improvement of the business process. Total quality management is also focused on continuous improvement and hence this theory has direct application in this research.

Gap

With the review of the past literature studies, it was acknowledged that scholars have done extensive studies on the subject of TQM and customer retention and the way in which TQM practice impact the level of customer satisfaction in organisations. However, no study was found on the particular case of Isuzu South Africa. This was the clearly identified gap in the past literature that this research study is indented to bridge through collecting primary data from the people of Isuzu company.

Research Design and Methodology

Research Philosophy

In the research studies, the use of research philosophy is done in general in the form of a core belief that is directive to design the entire research study process (Myers, 2019). There are multiple options of research philosophies that can be used by the researchers such as positivism, interpretivism and pragmatism. From among these options, interpretivism research philosophy will be suitable for this research.

This philosophy considers that any particular social reality existing in the society is subjective in nature and this reality is perceived in different ways by different individuals (Willis, 2007). In this research study the data will be collected using the interview method that provides subjective data and hence this will be a significant philosophy to collective subjective data. It supports the involvement of human participation in the data collection process and in this research also it is favoured.

Research Methodology

The key research design that will be suitable for this research study will be the exploratory research design and there are multiple reasons for its suitability in this research. Firstly, exploratory research design will prove supportive to conduct the research study in a flexible manner due to its specific attribute of being flexible in nature (Stebbins, 2001). Secondly, the exploratory research design aims to investigate any research phenomenon which is not investigated in the past by the researchers and which is very new in nature (Edmonds and Kennedy, 2016).

The selected research aspect of use of total quality management by Isuzu and its impact on customer retention is also new research aspect that was not explored in the past so exploratory research design will prove helpful to reach the desired results.
There are basically two types of research approaches used in the research studies namely qualitative and quantitative(Edmonds and Kennedy, 2016). In this research study, the use of qualitative approach will be done because it will take use of the interview method that facilitates the use of qualitative data in the research study.

Target Population and Sampling Strategy

In order to conduct the interview for the primary data collection purpose, there will be a direct need for targeting a particular population. For the same purpose in this research study the target population that will be approached will be the quality managers and operations mangers of Isuzu as they can have better knowledge about the use of the total quality management practices in the company and their implications for customer relationship.

The selection of the sample will be done with the help of using purposive sampling. The purposive sampling ensures that the selection of the sample should be done considering the features and attributes of the sample that has been selected for the research purpose (Ray, 2012). With the help of purposive sampling their selection will be done considering these factors and expected sample size will be 8 to 10 managers.

Data Collection Instruments

For the purpose of data collection through survey method, in this research study the use of the interview schedule will be done as a key instrument. The interview schedule will be designed with the help of using open-ended questions. The questions will include only research specific questions (Vellnagel, 2011). There will be around 8-10 open-ended questions in the interview schedule.

Data Analysis

In this research study the data will be collected using interview method and hence for the analysis of this data thematic analysis approach will be used that is the most fundamental and core method of data analysis that is used in the research studies for the purpose of data analysis. Thematic analysis will be applied through development of some codes based on the literature data and on the basis of those codes some core themes and the analysis of this data will be done under those themes considering the common patterns of the data (Braun and Clarke, 2021).

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Pilot Study

A pilot study is a testing study used in the research studies to determine the feasibility and applicability of particular instrument of data collection (Xuan, Williams and Peat, 2020). It is important to check whether the data collection instrument is appropriate or not. For the pilot study purpose, in this research study around 2 university students will be targeted.

Ethical Consideration

In this research study, a range of ethical considerations will be taken into account which are illustrated below:

• Ensuring participants have given informed consent: In order to gain the informed consent of the participants, it will be ensured in this research study to get a signed consent letter by the participants. They will be asked to read the consent letter and sign it if they agree to take part in the data collection process (Pimple, 2017).
• Ensuring no harm comes to participants: in the research it will also be ensured that not during the data collection process any harm will be caused to the participants. Even this will also be ensured that the data findings will not harm any personal values and beliefs of the participants.
• Ensuring confidentiality and anonymity: In this research the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants will also be maintained and for the same purpose they will not be asked to share any of their personal details during the data collection process and even after the dissemination of the research. Their personal identity will be kept anonymous during the entire research process. The data that will be shared by them will be kept secured under password protection in one drive (Iphofen, 2020).
• Ensuring that permission is obtained: In the proposed research it will also be taken into consideration that prior to get involvement of the participants for taking part in the interview process, a permission is gained from their company authorities that they can take part in the data collection process.
• Participant selection: In the process of participant selection for the interview process it was taken care that no member is selected from any vulnerable group in the final selected sample. Vulnerable groups are mainly prisoners, asylum seekers, refugees and mentally challenges people and criminals. Even, minors were also not given any place in the final sample size.