THE IMPACT OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ON SUSTAINABILITY OF SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES IN SOUTH AFRICA

摘要

Small business sustainability is the capacity of small businesses to manage their resources over long periods of time whilst achieving profit, increasing market share, and maintaining customer satisfaction and business growth relative to that of their competitors. These indicators include job growth, high turnover and profits. However, there is the notion that small businesses in townships in South Africa outside metropolitan areas have been struggling to incorporate these key elements to sustain themselves. This paper investigates how total quality management (TQM) can impact the sustainability of small manufacturers leading to success of the company. The TQM system approach is integrative and requires a high level of commitment from every member of an organization. Some key factors that can be used to promote the culture of TQM are, fostering a continuous drive towards improving products and services and committing to a continuous re-evaluation of processes related to planning, production and service to achieve improvement goals. Others are providing on-the-job training to develop and retain valuable staff, including opportunities for extensive education and self-improvement for everyone and tasking everyone within the organization towards achieving the transformational goals of TQM. The findings show that implementation of these factors can spearhead sustainability of the company leading to high quality and productivity.