Impact of Quality Standards in Automobile Industry

This research project provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of quality standards within the automobile industry, specifically comparing Volvo and Mercedes. The study explores the role of quality standards like ISO 9000, TQM, and others in influencing product quality, brand value, and market performance. The report delves into the methodologies used, including both primary and secondary data collection through surveys and literature reviews. It examines the importance of quality management standards, evaluates their implementation in Volvo and Mercedes, and recommends best practices for enhancing product quality. The research also addresses the limitations and ethical considerations involved, offering valuable insights into the relationship between quality standards and consumer decision-making in the automotive sector.

Research project

Table of Contents
BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................................1
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................1
RATIONALE ..................................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................4
Introduction .................................................................................................................................4
Research types ............................................................................................................................4
Research approach ......................................................................................................................5
Research Philosophy....................................................................................................................5
Data collection.............................................................................................................................5
Sampling......................................................................................................................................6
Data analysis................................................................................................................................6
Limitations...................................................................................................................................6
Ethical consideration....................................................................................................................7
Time line and Gantt chart ...........................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................11

TITLE : “A research analysis on the impact of quality standards in the Automobile industry by
comparing two multinational brands i.e., Volvo and Mercedes.”
BACKGROUND
Automobile industry are involved in designing, manufacturing, developing, marketing
and selling the motor vehicles in global market. This industry is the largest industry by
generating higher revenue. Automobile industry use different quality standard like ISO 9000,
ISO/ TS 16949, TQM, PDCA cycle etc. to ensure the quality of the material and the cars to
satisfy customer demand.
Volvo and Mercedes are two expensive brand model who always comes with new model
to capture the higher market (Luthra, Garg and Haleem, 2016). Volvo started in 1927 with the
safety concept in Gothenburg, Sweden. The cars manufacture by Volvo company is highly safe,
reliable and solidly build. They announced to come with fully electric or hybrid electric cars in
2019 to protect the environment from the different hazardous gases. Mercedes cars are founded
by Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler in 1926 and serve their services across the world. They come
with different models in vans, lorry, buses and cars to provide the comfortable and luxuries
services to their customers.
The project highlights the impact of quality standard on the Automobile industry and how
the industry use this standard to improve the quality and gain the trust of the customer.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Aims : To identify the relation between the quality standard and product quality and their impact
on brand value of Mercedes and Volvo.
Objectives
 To critically analyse different quality management standards.
 To identify the importance of quality management standard in Automobile industry to
improve their performance in the market.
 Evaluate quality management standard in Volvo and Mercedes, and its market impact.
 To recommend the best practices improving the quality of the products.
Research question
 What are different quality management standards?
 What is the importance of quality management standard in Automobile industry to
improve their performance in the market?
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 How to evaluate quality management standard in Volvo and Mercedes, and its market
impact?
 What are effective recommendable practices to improve the quality of the products?
RATIONALE
The research will be conducted because of the self-interest of respondent and for
fulfilling the academic requirement. The research topic will be choose by researcher to identify
the impact of quality standard on Automobile industry. It will help the researcher to gain the
knowledges about the different quality standard and identify that which quality standard are
highly acceptable by the customer. Researcher have to face many issues or problem while
conducting the research because of the limited time and cost. They also have to face the problem
in collecting the information from the respondents and interpret them by using SPSS tool.
The research will be conducted because of the latest trend, self-interest and to improve
the knowledges in Automobile industry and the quality standard. It will help the different
researcher to get the review regarding their study and understand the meaning of research in
deeper way. It will also help the Automobile industry to understand the usage of quality standard
in the company and how they improve the product quality. This is a wide concept and it helps in
improving the quality management standards of products and services. The researcher will
examine the usage of various quality standards in order to effectively improve the quality of the
product in an auto mobile industry.
LITERATURE REVIEW
As per the views of Link, R., (2016) quality management standard is useful in providing
details related with the guidelines, specifications, characteristics and requirements of the
products and services. The Automobile industry use the different quality standard such as ISO
9000, ISO 9001, TQM, TS 16949, ISO 19011, etc. to ensure that the product are highly qualified
and safe for the environment and customer. It helps the companies to attract the more and more
customer toward the organisation because now the customer prefer to buy the qualified product
with high standard. Zlokolica and et.al., (2018), the quality standard are fixed by the nation
according to their policies. ISO 16949 focuses on designing the product which leads to higher
sustainability of automotive products. ISO 9000 helps in setting international standards for
quality management standards helps in maintaining efficient quality system. Different country
has different quality standard and the company has to follow the standard to ensure the quality of
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the product. For example Volvo uses the ISO 9000 and TQM method to ensure the quality of the
product by comparing with the standards.
Author Li and et.al., (2018 September) criticise that besides the use of quality
management standard for ensuring the product quality they also have to monitor and control the
activity of Automobile industry at regular time interval. Applying the quality standard to the
company is not only appropriate they also have to monitor them to ensure that the product of the
company will be accomplish the standard.
According to the Rüßmann and et.al., (2015) quality standard play an important role in
Automobile industry. It is used to create positive image of company in the mind of customer. It
helps the customer to ensure that the product are highly qualified and follow all the safety norms.
At the same time quality standard also help the Automobile industry to improve their product by
comparing the quality of the product to the standard.
But the author Luthra, Garg and Haleem, (2016) argue that the applying the quality
standard to the organisation also increases the cost of the company and create confusion in the
mind of the customer because different company use different quality standard to ensure the
quality of the product. It ultimately creates confusion that which standard are best and according
to which standard consumer has to purchase the Automobile industry products like cars, lorry,
buses etc.
Author Restecka and Wolniak, (2016) found that the quality standard influence the
decisions of customer to buy the product according to the brand image. The taste and preferences
of customer are fluctuated because of the different reason like the quality of the product, market
trend, competition etc. with these changes they also change their decision regarding the choice of
the brand. For example Volvo uses the ISO 9000 and TQM standard while Mercedes use PDCA
and TQM standard to ensure the quality of the product. The different quality standard influence
the decision of customer regarding choosing the brand (Benefits of IATF 16949, 2019). ISO
16949 focuses on technical specifications which focuses on evolution of quality management
system by continually focuses on improvements and focuses on prevention, reduction of waste,
etc. It also focuses on designing the product which leads to higher sustainability of automotive
products. ISO 9000 helps in setting international standards for quality management standards
helps in maintaining efficient quality system. ISO 9001 focuses on consistently providing
products that comply with customer needs and regulatory requirements.
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Author Hoyle, (2017)criticise that quality standard are not only factor which influence
the decision of customer regarding selecting the brand. There are several factors which influence
the customer decision such as price, mileage, type, budget, feature, performance, competitors
strategies, dimensions etc. of the Automobile industry product. This factor also force the
customer to select the best brand from the different alternatives which fulfil their requirements.
As per the views of Mardani and et.al., (2016) different measure is used to implement the
quality standard in Automobile industry. It differs according to the choice of the company and
the demand of the customer. Different organisation use different policies the selection of quality
standard based on their policies. Some organisation wants to provide safe and secure product
with the environment safety factor so they use ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 while some organisation
wants to improve the quality of the product on continuous basis so they select the ISO/TS 16949
standard. They also describe in their research that Automobile industry also choose the standard
on the basis of their budget.
According to the Luthra, Garg and Haleem, (2016) quality standard highly influence the
Automobile industry for enhancing the quality of the product and satisfy customer demand. Now
the trend of using quality standard is increasing day by day and different Automobile industry
use the quality standard to improve their product quality so they can satisfy the customer need
and demand. For example Volvo fully used the qualitative standard Mercedes partially used the
standard to improve the quality of the product. These factor influence the customer decision and
sales of the company.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Research methodology focuses on critically evaluating the in- depth strategic study on the
particular subject matter in order to gain wider perspective. It is very useful in assembling and
collecting data.
Research types
It refers to the process of collecting data and conducting research by using various
methods. It can be done in two ways such as qualitative and quantitative research. Quantitative
research refers to conducting research by using figure and facts of the past records or the
prediction of future data. In qualitative research researcher analyse, measure and interpret the
information buy observing the behaviour of people (Guajardo, Cohen and Netessine, 2015). For
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conducting the research project researcher will use the qualitative data to analyse the different
quality management standards.
Research approach
It is the plan and procedure of conducting research by following the steps from the data
collection to the data interpretation. There are two types of research approach such as inductive
and deductive research approach. Inductive research refers to generating new theory on the basis
of the presented data while in deductive research, researcher use the pre setted theory to prepare
the hypothesis and then collect the data and analyse them for the end conclusion. Here researcher
will use the inductive research approach to analyse the data of Volvo and Mercedes for make the
conclusion and understand the impact of quality standard on the brands.
Research Philosophy
It refers to the belief about the method to collecting, analysing and interpreting the data.
It can be done by positivism and interpretivism way. In positivism philosophy the role of
researcher is limited to collect the data and interpret them While in interpretivism philosophy
researcher can use the skills and knowledge to interpret the data and differentiate that different
respondents have different opinion regarding the subject area (Luthra, Garg and Haleem, 2016).
Researcher will use the positivism research philosophy because the research is based on the
primary data and positivism is the best method for primary data. The researcher of the study will
focus on evaluating quality management standard in Volvo and Mercedes, and its market impact.
Data collection
Data can be collected by primary method and secondary method. In primary method data
are collected by observation, interview and focused group method. Primary data are never
published while secondary data are already published on different sites, journals, books,
newspaper and magazines. In order to address concerned research issue data will be gathered
from both primary and secondary sources. In the context of primary data collection, survey will
be conducted on 20 customers of Volvo and Mercedes through questionnaire. Hence, by
including both close and open ended questions in relation to quality aspects or standards survey
will be done. They will use the secondary method of data collection for literature review. The
researcher of the study will focus on critically evaluating the different quality management
standards with effective recommended alternative strategies to improve the quality of the
products.
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Sampling
It refers to the method of selecting the respondents for participate in the process of
collecting data. There are two method of sampling such as probabilistic and non probabilistic
method. In probabilistic method researcher provide the equal chance to the population for
participating in research process while in non probabilistic method researcher select particular
sample for the data collection. In this research researcher will use the non-probabilistic method
and the sample size will be 20 customers of Volvo and Mercedes. The researcher of the study
will determine criteria for applying the quality standard and their process in Automobile
industry. It will also helps in identifying the relation between the quality standard and product
quality and their impact on brand value of Mercedes and Volvo.
Data analysis
It includes the way of presenting the data and interpret them to get the accurate outcomes.
Data can be done analytical and statistical tool such as interpreting the graphs, theme and SPSS
method. In this research project researcher will use the SPSS method to analyse the data by
generating hypothesis of the data and interpret the correlation between the product quality and
quality standard. In other words, quantitative tools (SPSS) will be used by the scholar to analyze
the impact of quality standards in the context of automobile sector. The researcher of the study
will critically examine the importance of quality management standard in automobile industry to
improve their performance in the market.
Limitations
The meaning of limitation in research is that the problem faced be researcher while conducting
the research. Researcher will face many problems in collecting and interpreting the data because
of the limited sample size but the SPSS tool will help the researcher to get the outcomes.
Researcher will be face the barriers in conducting research because of the time and cost
limitation but the timeline will help them to arrange the activities according to the available time
and cost. The researcher of the study will demonstrate the importance of quality management
standard in Automotive industry to improve their performance in the market.
Ethical consideration
It is required by the researcher to conduct the research in proper manner. It helps to
explain that research will be conducted by following all the ethics, consent and free from the any
contradictions. Researcher will use the consent form to get the permission of the respondents
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while collecting the information. It will help them to show that the collected data and
information are accurate and reliable.
Time line and Gantt chart
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Activity/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6
Background of
research
Preparing aims
and objectives
Rational of
research
Literature
review
Research
methodology
Distributing
questionnaire
Compiling
obtained results
Data analysis
Discussion
Preparing
conclusion
Recommendati
on
Gantt chart
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Guajardo, J.A., Cohen, M.A. and Netessine, S., 2015. Service competition and product quality in
the US automobile industry. Management Science, 62(7). pp.1860-1877.
Hoyle, D., 2017. ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook-updated for the ISO 9001: 2015
standard: Increasing the Quality of an Organization’s Outputs. Routledge.
Li, T., Li, L., Zhuang, M. and Ai, C., 2018, September. Analysis of Application and Distribution
of Lead in M1 Type Automotive Materials. In 2018 2nd International Conference on
Data Science and Business Analytics (ICDSBA) (pp. 478-481). IEEE.
Link, R., 2016. Innovative approaches to recycling of small and electric motors from end-of-life
vehicles, electric bicycles and industrial machinery.
Luthra, S., Garg, D. and Haleem, A., 2016. The impacts of critical success factors for
implementing green supply chain management towards sustainability: an empirical
investigation of Indian automobile industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 121.
pp.142-158.
Mardani, A., and et.al., 2016. Multiple criteria decision-making techniques in transportation
systems: a systematic review of the state of the art literature. Transport, 31(3). pp.359-
385.
Restecka, M. and Wolniak, R., 2016. IT systems in aid of welding processes quality
management in the automotive industry. Archives of Metallurgy and Materials. 61(4),
pp.1785-1792.
Rüßmann, M., and et.al., 2015. Industry 4.0: The future of productivity and growth in
manufacturing industries. Boston Consulting Group, 9(1). pp.54-89.
Zlokolica, V. and et.al., 2018. Visual quality evaluation of the multi-camera visualization in
automotive surround view systems. Electronic Imaging, 2018(17), pp.1-6.
Online
Benefits of IATF 16949. 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.industryforum.co.uk/resources/articles/benefits-of-iatf-16949/>.
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