Total quality management and competitive advantage of pharmaceutical industries in Uganda: A case study of CIPLA Quality Chemical Industries Limited

Abstract

The study set out to examine TQM and Competitive Advantage in Uganda’s Pharmaceutical Industry, focusing on CiplaQCIL as the case study. The study was based on three objectives: 1) to establish how CiplaQCIL reviews and ensures continuous professional development and is aware of change in standards or regulatory current practices; 2) to determine how CiplaQCIL has ensured that production and related processes are capable of consistently achieving pharmaceutical products of required quality that comply with their specifications; and 3) to establish how CiplaQCIL has ensured that it works closely with its customers and suppliers to establish the highest quality standards.

A case study was employed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches of data collection. The study population was 200 staff from CiplaQCIL and a sample of 133 respondents was selected. However, this sample was revised to 114 as this was the number of usable questionnaires returned. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and review of related literature. The collected data was processed and summarized using SPSS, version 20. Data was analyzed using descriptive measures including frequencies, means and standard deviations. Inferential statistical measures including correlation, simple and multiple regression analysis, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses. The study findings indicated that continuous professional development explains about 79.8% of the variation in competitive advantage, Continuous process improvement explains about 63.2% of the variation in competitive advantage, while customer-supplier relationship management explains about 74.2% of the variation in competitive advantage. The three constructs of TQM (continuous professional development, Continuous process improvement and customer-supplier relationship management explain about 63.7% of the variation in competitive advantage at CiplaQCIL.

The study concluded that CiplaQCIL reviews and ensures continuous professional development and is aware of change in standards or current regulatory practices; it was also discovered that the company ensures that production and related processes can achieve pharmaceutical products of required quality that comply with their specifications and CiplaQCIL works closely with its customers and suppliers to establish the highest quality standards.

The study recommends that CiplaQCIL should fully integrate continuous professional development in its strategic management systems, implement continuous process improvements, and integrate customer-supplier relationship management into all the operations of the company.