QUALITY MANAGEMENT INFLUENCES ON LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE

The importance of quality management practices in the achievement of o perational results and customer satisfaction in logistics has been ass erted in many studies. However, though widely adopted, quality managem ent does not have a uniformly accepted framework as a basis for assess ment of improvement efforts. This study develops quality management co nstructs and a casual model based on the criteria utilized in the Malc olm Baldrige National Quality Award. Casual relationships between qual ity management factors and logistics outcomes, specifically logistics operational performance and customer service, are established. Implica tions of the findings for management are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.