Managing supplier quality in the supply chain of an electronics manufacturing company

Quality is the most crucial factor in the services and products offered by organisations. Quality becomes a competitive advantage to organizations when it is parts of its strategies. The aim of the study was to investigate factors that improve supplier quality in the supply chain of the manufacturing company under study. To attain this aim, the following objectives were developed: To identify the causes of poor quality in the coating processes of the supplier (1); To identify the procedures in the quality inspection process during the selection of supplies (2) and finally suggest a Corrective Action Preventive Action (CAPA) workflows to ensure a cycle of continuous improvement (3). The study followed a Mixed design whereby both the quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The quantitative method was used to analyse the data collected using the questionnaire when conducting the study. Mathematical and statistical methods were used to interpret the data collected. The qualitative method on the other hand was used when conducting the interviews with some of the respondents. A non-probabilistic sample of 48 respondents was used, within which three categories of respondents were identified: respondents from the supplier's company, respondents from the manufacturing company under study and finally the end users. The study revealed that quality plays an important role in the supply chain of the organisation as it also affects the final product which affect the end-user's perspective of the company. Different factors such as information management, clear product specifications and products inspections played a key role in the final quality of products in the supply chain. The study also provided recommendations on how to improve the supply chain quality before identifying the causes of poor quality in the coating processes of the suppliers.