ESSENTIAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN SMEs: LITERATURE REVIEW
Sahala Siallagan1), Keysar Panjaitan2), Randeska Manullang3), Maher Yahya Salloom4)

1)2) Department of Mechanical Engineering Education, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Negeri Medan
3)Department of Economics Education, Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Medan
4)Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Al-Khwarizmi College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have significantly contributed to growth, innovation and success of several economies across the world. However, SMEs in emerging economies have faced stiff competition in the global market. In order to gain a competitive advantage, SMEs have to implement competitive strategies that will enable them to compete in the local, regional and global markets. Among others, quality management (QM) strategies have been used as competitive strategies for performance improvement. QM practices are tools, techniques and strategies for continuous improvement of quality, usually driven by the need to satisfy customer needs. Limited adoption of the tools is mainly caused by lack of knowledge of the tools and the high cost of training and the lack of financial resources as one of the major causes of the limited adoption of quality tools. The factors include low technical know-how, lack of equipment, limited capacity for control of quality, inadequate space for business, high purchase costs and limited access to credit facilities.

Keywords: SMEs- quality management- competitive advantage

Topic: Management and Education Innovation