layout firms to the latter. In terms of improvement goals, the data display higher variability in relation to
manufacturing conformance than product quality and reliability.
In terms of performance, the competitive importance of quality issues in winning orders over competitors
does not display significant variability. Product design and quality and quality conformance are perceived as
being very important factors for all the firms. Balanced firms are more driven by product design and quality
than job-shop firms. All the firms display similar ratings for conformance quality. As for the impact of quality
on lateness, yet poor quality of supplies is a major cause of delay for cellular layout firms, while it only
marginally affects dedicated lines firms. Internal quality is a major cause of delays only for balanced firms.
Similarly, internal quality is a major cause of delay for balanced firms, while it has a minor impact on
balanced firms. The rankings in the amount of change in quality performance criteria such as manufacturing
conformance and product quality and reliability over the past three years portray also a quite varied picture
where fabrication firms are more driven to achieve manufacturing conformance whereas balanced firms are
less oriented towards product quality and reliability.
3.6 Degree of similarity within industry sectors
Overall few differences between ISIC sub-sectors are evident (Table 1). In terms of practices, all the firms
regardless of the sector they belong to, they all tend to deploy most of their resources in corrective
maintenance (40:60). The only exception is represented by ISIC 383 firms that deploy equally their resources
among preventive and corrective maintenance (50:50). As for quality costs, all the firms tend to spend more
on inspection costs rather than internal, preventive or external costs. A particularly high rate of ISO9000
adoption among ISIC 383 firms who also spend proportionally more on preventive costs rather then corrective
(50:50 compared to 40:60 overall). All firm based in Ireland was ISO9000 certified where a higher number of
firms are also in this sub-sector. The importance of the quality of the products/services offered in the selection
of suppliers displays significant variability across firms, where both ISIC 381 and ISIC 383 firms rate this
factor very high, while ISIC 385 firms rate it very low. Finally, as for the current implementation of quality
programs, 383 ISIC firms tend to be more compliant whereas ISIC 384 firms less. There are not significant
differences across firms in relation to the future use of quality programs.
As for priorities, overall the data does not display significant variability across firms. All the firms display
similar results in both changes of priorities of customers and improvement goals, except 384 ISIC firms that
display both higher changes of priorities and improvement goals. ISIC 385 firms show the lowest change in
the changes of priorities of customers related to conformance quality. In terms of performance, the
competitive importance of quality issues in winning orders over competitors does not display significant
variability. Product design and quality and quality conformance are perceived as being very important factors
for all the firms. ISIC 385 firms are more driven by product design and quality than the other firms. All the
firms display similar ratings for conformance quality, except ISIC 384 firms that consider this factor as
significantly important. As for the impact of quality on lateness, yet poor quality of supplies is a major cause
of delay for ISIC 383 firms, while it only marginally affects ISIC 381 firms. Similarly, internal quality is a
major cause of delays only for ISIC 383 firms, while it only marginally affects ISIC 381 firms. The rankings
in the amount of change in quality performance criteria such as manufacturing conformance and product
quality and reliability over the past three years does not show a high level of variability across firms, except
for ISIC 383 firms that tend to be more driven to achieve product quality and reliability.