Quality management and supply chain management practices towards operational performance: A study of the rubber manufacturing industry of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Rubber industry, one of the growing industries in the world creates a vacuum to exploit foreign markets especially for countries like Sri Lanka. However, lack of strategic relationships and low quality products with higher cost keep Sri Lanka’s rubber industry performance away from the global market. Since supply chain management (SCM) is implicated in the issue of external relationships and quality management (QM) is implicated in low product quality, the key aim of this study was to test the relationships between SCM, QM and organisational performance, in the context of the rubber industry in Sri Lanka. In particular, it empirically tested the mediating role played by SCM in the relationship between QM and operational performance (OP) of rubber manufacturing organisations though this relationship has already been established in theoretical literature. Data was gathered through a questionnaire from managers of 44 firms in the rubber products manufacturing sector in Sri Lanka. Data was analysed with the descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. The results indicated that QM practices and SCM practices improve OP while SCM practices are partially mediating the effect of QM practices on OP. The results of this study help the rubber products manufacturing organisations in Sri Lanka to formulate successful strategies by enhancing the OP via QM and SCM practices.