Using factor analysis to explore principal components for quality management implementation

Quality remains or continues to be one of the top ranking strategic issues in all major organisations. However, today organisations are faced with increasingly sophisticated and informed stakeholder expectations. Standards by which organisations are judged are continuously evolving as are consumer’s expectations, needs and preferences. Thus, in such an environment, the alignment of quality with today’s business challenges, are widely criticized. There is a sense that quality has become outdated somewhere over the last two decades and that it is still predominately understood and practiced using the framework and direction provided historically by quality leaders such as Deming, Juran, Crosby and others. The above has resulted in many organisations struggling with the implementation of quality management. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current status of quality management practices in manufacturing related organisations in South Africa. It extracts principal components, for quality using factor analysis, in order to suggest key factors for quality management in present day, as practiced by the organisations that participated in this study.