TITLE:
Comparative Study on QMS at Pre-Production Stage in China and UK Baby Dairy Product Industries
AUTHORS:
Qingxin Chen, Huihui Shi, Liben Jiang
KEYWORDS:
Quality Management System, Comparative, Baby Dairy Product Industry
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
31,
2022
ABSTRACT: This research examined the Chinese baby dairy industry between 2008 and
2019, focusing on the quality management system with comparison between the UK
and Chinese baby dairy product (BDP) companies. This study was conducted with a
selection of four Chinese and two UK companies as case studies where interviews
were used to collect the primary data. Moreover, focus group with company’s
managers and government officials and site visits were also carried out. The
collected data were analysed through thematic analysis technique. This research
has concluded that in the Chinese BDP industry many challenges are encountered,
such as animal management, farmers’ orientation towards quality assurance and
implementation of quality standards. It has
been found that it is important to focus on the pre-production stage for
the best quality in final products. The comparison with the UK BDP industry has
shown that it is better able to manage its quality with involvement of the
majority of supply chain actors through electronic information sharing and
traceability system, which are lacking in Chinese industry. It is also
concluded that Chinese government has started to adopt practices such as strong
enforcement of legislation which are improving the quality issues. The present
study has important theoretical and empirical contribution in the existing
literature. It has developed a framework about pre-production phase which will
become foundation of future studies. The comparison of Chinese and UK BDP is
also a contribution as previous studies have not done so. It has provided
guidelines to managers about implementation of Quality Management System (QMS)
in BDP hence managers have become better able to manage the quality.