Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of ISO 9001 quality improvement requirements in ISO 9001:2008, i.e. the corrective and preventive actions and internal audit, on customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach For the purposes of the study, data were collected via a survey on 200 aerospace and transportation companies that belong to a Canadian multinational company supply chain. The relationships between the corrective and preventive actions and internal auditing, on the one hand, and customer satisfaction, on the other, were examined via the structural equation modeling technique. Findings The major contribution of this study is that it has identified internal audit as the most influential continual improvement ISO 9001 requirement prior to the ISO 9001 transition phase, along with the corrective actions, while the preventive actions in the present formulation do not significantly influence customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implications This study is based on a cross-sectional survey conducted on the supply chain level in the aerospace and transportation sector; hence, a longitudinal study is possible as a future research avenue. The generalizability of this study’s findings is limited to similar supply chains around a multinational company consisted of companies that have at least ISO 9001 standard, but also fulfill other industry-specific requirements. Also, findings are based mainly on quality managers’ attitudes, so future studies are recommended to examine other positions’ views, too. Practical implications This research contributes to the literature and bridges the gap between theory and practice. It could be of value to both the certification bodies and the organizations that are interested in improving customer satisfaction by implementing ISO 9001 in the multinational supply chains context such as the aerospace and transportation sector. Originality/value While the influence of the ISO 9001 standard on customer satisfaction has been the subject of prior research, this is the first time that the simultaneous effect of the corrective and preventive actions and internal auditing on customer satisfaction has been studied. The validity of the removal of preventive actions from ISO 9001:2015 has also been analyzed.

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Unlike previous studies that have revealed a link between quality improvement programs and organizational culture typologies in individual companies, this study describes organizational culture dimensions that affect the use of quality improvement tools and methodologies and how both affect supply chain company performance. Structural equation modeling methods are applied to a sample of 200 organizations in the supply chain of a Canadian multinational company. The results show that employee promotion and investment constitutes the most influential cultural dimension. Organizational objectives and an employee reward system individually affect Kaizen. When the level of formalization in an organization is high, Kaizen and total quality management tools are used more intensively. When the level of formalization is low, lean manufacturing and internal audits are used more intensively. Superior communication in an organization causes plan–do–check–act approaches, lean manufacturing methods, corrective actions and internal audits to be used less intensively. Generally speaking, most quality improvement tools and methodologies positively influence business performance. These results suggest that organizations can improve business performance levels by selecting appropriate quality improvement programs depending on existing organizational culture dimensions and may thereby develop an organizational culture that enables successful quality improvements in a supply chain context.

Employees factors importance in lean six sigma concept Vesna Spasojevic Brkic Branislav Tomic Article information:To cite this document: Vesna Spasojevic Brkic Branislav Tomic , (2016),"Employees factors importance in lean six sigma concept", The TQM Journal, Vol. 28 Iss 5 pp. -Permanent link to this document: http://dx.If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

Previous research shows that organizational factors influence quality improvement programs, and when there is a fit, it is leading to better business performances. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is an analysis of interdependence between organizational culture and quality improvement via testing the differences between dimensions and types of organizational cultures and applied procedures for quality improvement techniques on companies from 32 countries worldwide. Following detailed exploration of the available literature, data collection is conducted on 200 production enterprises in multinational supply chain. Upon this, further statistical examination is conducted by comparison of the companies in dependence of its locations -continents. Results show that there are significant differences on dimensions of organizational culture and applied quality improvement procedures depending of geographical location of companies. Accordingly, results of this paper prove that contextual approach promoted in ISO 9001:2015 has to be applied and organizations that operate in different countries and continents must decide how much to localize their organizational culture and related management practices to fit within the host country context.