An empirical investigation of quality tools and techniques practices in Malaysia and Indonesia automotive industries

This paper aims to investigate the tools and techniques for quality adopted by the automotive related companies in Malaysia and Indonesia and to find out the benefits and shortcomings of these quality tools and techniques; considerations in selecting quality tools and techniques; and the difficulties faced by automotive industries in adopting these tools and techniques. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected experts. The findings show that both Malaysia and Indonesia have highly implemented almost all seven basic tools compared to seven new tools. Besides brainstorming, sampling and flow charting are the other tools which high application in both countries. As for the advanced techniques, statistical process control, cost of quality, and benchmarking are the most implemented techniques in both countries. In terms of factors in selecting quality tools and techniques in automotive industries, the findings show that user friendliness and usefulness are the two primary internal factors considered in selecting quality tools and techniques. Meanwhile the two primary external factors in selecting the tools and techniques according to experts are necessity and organization. The organization factors include top management support, team work, and technical capability.