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This paper examines the components of quality cost (internal failure, external failure, appraisal cost, and prevention cost) in the context of two key manufacturing inputs, materials and machines; the concept is also explained for the company as a whole. The purpose of this research is to analyze the variables that impact quality in a manufacturing environment. There are three major findings in this research. First, there is an inverse relationship between appraisal cost plus prevention cost and failure cost. Second, the relationship between appraisal cost plus prevention cost and quality is positive. Finally, failure cost is negatively correlated with quality. This analysis also revealed a strong relationship between appraisal cost plus prevention cost and quality for material input, machine input, and the company. The results indicate that as the appraisal cost plus the prevention cost increases, quality improves and failure cost decreases.

Previous studies have shown the feasibility of using activity-based costing (ABC) in hospital environments. However, many of these studies discuss the general applications of ABC in health-care organizations. This research explores the potential application of ABC to the nuclear medicine unit (NMU) at a teaching hospital. The finding indicates that the current cost averages 236.11 US dollars for all procedures, which is quite different from the costs computed by using ABC. The difference is most significant with positron emission tomography scan, 463 US dollars (an increase of 96%), as well as bone scan and thyroid scan, 114 US dollars (a decrease of 52%). The result of ABC analysis demonstrates that the operational time (machine time and direct labour time) and the cost of drugs have the most influence on cost per procedure. Clearly, to reduce the cost per procedure for the NMU, the reduction in operational time and cost of drugs should be analysed. The result also indicates that ABC can be used to improve resource allocation and management. It can be an important aid in making management decisions, particularly for improving pricing practices by making costing more accurate. It also facilitates the identification of underutilized resources and related costs, leading to cost reduction. The ABC system will also help hospitals control costs, improve the quality and efficiency of the care they provide, and manage their resources better.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation activities involved in certifying a quality management system to the ISO 9000 quality management system standard. This includes developing the best business performance measures that will serve as indicators of an effective quality management system. This paper aims to establish a relationship between implementation activities involved in the quality system and specific business performance measures that can be used to assess the system's effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected using an online survey combined with publicly available financial reporting information. Regression and other statistical techniques along with text clustering and association of the survey comments were used to analyze the data. Findings -Emphasis on implementing a documentation system were found to be linked to business performance as measured by the return on assets financial measure. Research limitations/implications -Future research should explore various documentation system aspects such as knowledge management and information sharing in greater detail. A larger sample focused on a specific industry might provide useful information for industry appropriate performance indicators. Practical implications -The practical implications of this research focus on the design and implementation of an organization's quality management system in areas that will provide the most benefit to organizations seeking ISO 9000 certification. A baseline measurement can be used prior to implementing the system to strategically manage the implementation process. By understanding how best to implement the quality management system, fewer resources are wasted on ineffective quality management system certification projects and some of the skepticism around the implemention of an ISO 9000 certified quality management system is eliminated. Originality/value -Few quality system researchers target the implementation process for analysis. Combining survey data and publicly held financial represents is a new method for studying ISO 9000 implementation.

The concepts of goods and services innovation have been discussed extensively in the academic literature. The research has been both selective (dealing with specific attributes such as R&D, process innovation, measurement of innovation, and use of information technology) and specific (dealing with specific industries such as banking, insurance, biotechnology, nanotechnology). This paper examines the concept of innovation in the context of "goods" and "services." The comparisons made between the two sectors are based on three distinct areas — definition, process, measurement. This paper also presents a conceptual framework showing the interactions among the various variables inherent in some of the distinct areas. Previous papers have highlighted the differences in innovation between goods and services. What is missing is how the intervening variables invoked in the discussions are themselves related to one another. While this paper reinforces the conclusions reached by other studies with regard to innovation, it specifically highlights on an aggregate scale, the areas in which goods and services differ. Future research should take these distinctions into account, not as single items but collectively. It is critical to consider how these innovation variables interact with one another in the context of goods and services. Perhaps the most significant contribution of this paper is in its presentation of the framework for understanding the innovation process as it relates to the goods and services sectors.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether customer-perceived service quality and expectation of service quality have causal impacts on overall customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach -Data on all the variables were elicited from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), and these were analyzed using the Granger causality method. Findings -Satisfaction and perceived quality were positively related. Even though perceived quality did not Granger-cause satisfaction in the short term, it did so in the long term. Likewise, even though satisfaction did not Granger-cause perceived quality in the short term, it did so in the long term. But customer expectations Granger-caused both satisfaction and expectation in the short-term and the long term.Research limitations/implications -The findings are based on only one company. Extrapolation to other companies demands caution and the data may not satisfy asymptotic assumptions. Originality/value -The study contributes to the literature by advising managers to extend their customer satisfaction tracking to overall customer satisfaction with its strategic implications.

This research examines how the patients' characteristics and clinical indicators affect length of stay for the top five Diagnosis-Related-Groups (DRGs) for Medicare patients at a teaching hospital in the United States. The top DRGs were selected on the basis of volume per year. Teaching hospitals in the United States devote a significant amount of their resources to research and teaching, while providing treatment for patients. The ability to predict length of stay can substantially improve a teaching hospital's capacity utilization, while ensuring that resources are available to meet the health care needs of the Medicare population. Multiple regression models are developed to predict the length of stay using the patients' characteristics and clinical indicators as independent variables. The results indicate that approximately 60 percent (R(2)) of the variance in the length of stay is explained by the patients' characteristics and clinical indicators for these DRGs. The Mortality and Severity indices are found to be the strongest predictors for length of stay in all DRGs. Other patients' characteristics and clinical indicators such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, admission type and admission source are also significant predictors for some DRGs. In addition, most of these variables affect the length of stay in the same manner as shown in previous studies, even though the previous studies do not have the DRG specificity of this study.