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Investigation into the implementation stages of manufacturing and quality techniques and philosophies within the Libyan cement industry
Rajab Abdullah Hokoma
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Elmergib, El-Khums, Libya, and

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Received November 2006 Revised October 2007 Accepted November 2007

Mohammed K. Khan and Khalid Hussain

School of Engineering, Design and Technology, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation level of just-in-time (JIT), manufacturing resources planning (MRPII) and total quality management (TQM) within the cement industry in Libya. Design/methodology/approach This paper covers an overview of the investigated manufacturing and quality techniques and philosophies. A survey methodology has been applied in this investigation using an intensive questionnaire to the correspondent organizations. Findings Based on the analysis of the survey questionnaire responses, the results show that the management body does not have a clear strategy towards most of the areas that are considered as being crucial in any successful implementation of the JIT and MRPII techniques/philosophies, with slightly better results for TQM. The research has identied limitations within the investigated areas and has pointed to areas where the management should take immediate action in order to achieve successful and effective implementation of JIT, MRPII and TQM within their organisations. This is an important nding for the future success of the cement industry in particular, and the manufacturing industry in general, within Libya. Research limitations/implications Future research could be applied to cover other industries, in order to investigate how widely the ndings from this study are reected in other industrial sectors within Libya. Originality/value This research is the rst to investigate the implementation status of manufacturing, planning, control and quality techniques and philosophies within the cement industry in Libya. It makes a contribution by providing an insight into what extent JIT, MRPII and TQM are understood and implemented within the Libyan cement industry. Keywords Total quality management, Just in time, Manufacturing resource planning, Cements, Libya Paper type Case study
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management Vol. 19 No. 7, 2008 pp. 893-907 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1741-038X DOI 10.1108/17410380810898804

The authors are grateful to Mr Mansor Esbiga, Director of the Commercial Department, Ahlyia Cement Company (Libya) for his assistance in the questionnaire survey.

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1. Introduction Organisations, both services and manufacturing, in recent competitive business environments, are being challenged to improve their performance to ensure their position in the marketplace. This could be achieved by continuously improving their processes and operations, reducing costs of their services/products, and increasing the capacity of their outputs with a satisfactory quality level, and acceptable prices. These challenges compel the organisations to change beyond the old traditional management systems, and implement a new way for managing their businesses towards continuous improvements, with a serious focus on the organisations internal and external customers. To achieve these aims, manufacturing and quality techniques and philosophies should be used as effective management systems that can help organisations provide a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction (Li et al., 2000). Most authors identify the top management as the most important factor in achieving successful and effective complete implementation of manufacturing and quality techniques and philosophies. The full acceptance of these techniques and philosophies by the management body is crucial to empower the related teams and individuals to overcome the barriers in the implementation processes throughout their organisations, especially within the Libyan environment (Oral et al., 2003). Libya was relatively poor until the discovery of oil and natural gas in the early 1960s. Since then, the country has turned to industrialisation by engaging in petroleum processing as well as iron and steel, cement and textile industries. Libya is committed to developing enhanced abilities to produce goods that meet the quality requirements of present markets with all the possible products and services, which could be achieved through the most appropriate and highest technology available (Hokoma et al., 2006a). Cement is the basic component of making concrete, and was patented and produced in 1824 by a British stonemason. Presently, more than 1,700 million tonnes a year of cement are used worldwide with different manufacturing types and procedures to meet various physical and chemical requirements and interactions (World Report International, 2004). In addition, the cement industry is considered as one of the most energy intensive industries around the globe, and is one of the large energy users, consuming about 2 per cent of the globally produced electricity and about 1.5 per cent from the total global fuel production (Benzer et al., 2001). A clear understanding and careful planning and control of the manufacturing operations and processes are required to efciently produce these huge amounts of cement every year. Very little investigation and modelling studies have been carried out over the recent years in the area of cement industry. However, the available published work was focused on modelling of the cement manufacturing operation processes rather than investigating the manufacturing and quality strategies and policies that are applied within this industry. This paper investigates this area of research to see how effectively and efciently the industry being run and to provide an insight into improvement. 2. An overview of JIT, MRPII and TQM Just-in-time (JIT), is a management pull system used for planning and control operations that are used for producing, manufacturing and supplying the requested products and services at the right place, at the right time they are needed, and at the exact ordered quantities. The distinctive philosophy of JIT is to eliminate all kinds of

waste by organising the entire system of operations and activities (Azmi et al., 2004). The JIT system represents the continuous improvement processes throughout the entire company system, and it can be applied in both production and purchasing systems within any organisation (Bedia and Martinez, 2002). JIT focuses on the complete elimination of waste, which is dened as anything that does not add any value to the products and services. In addition, the modern manufacturing organisations consider the successful JIT implementation as a key factor for minimising inventory and maximising the quality of products and services (McMullen, 2001; Lai et al., 2003). This could be achieved through setting well-organised networks for producing and transporting the right items exactly at the right time with the right quantities needed, establishing a long-term relationship with vendors to maintain regulated shipments to minimise ordering cost, and to buy enough parts as needed to avoid paying holding costs (Henry, 2004; Hokoma et al., 2006a). Manufacturing resources planning (MRPII) is a management push planning and control system, established as a second generation of the material requirement planning (MRP) to address the shortcomings of MRP. It is based on a company wide database and it includes all elements of MRP and uses master production scheduling and bill of material as its starting point for creating the initial scheduling (McBurney and Green, 2002). MRPII is presently a closed loop system which considers all the manufacturing resources (materials, machines, human, space, tool, etc.) needed to complete the task in hand. In essence, the nal aim of MRPII is the same as JIT, however, its methodology is a push as apposed to a pull system of JIT. MRPII has become a key information technology within many manufacturing environments, used to accomplish production scheduling and extracting data from several production information systems (Zaho et al., 2002). However, lack of management involvement within MRPII systems could be the main cause of many failures throughout the entire manufacturing and managerial operations within any organisation. The poor attitude towards the MRPII system and inability of the management to cope with and maintain the implementation of MRPII practices at the highest level of priority may result in a limited MRPII. A precondition for effective operation of applying MRPII systems is a high level of le data integrity as the data must be complete, accurate and up-to-date. It must be collected and lled accurately by understanding the prime objective for this collection and eliminating all possible causes of any type of errors (Aghazadeh, 2003; Bindra and Hokoma, 2004; Hokoma et al., 2006b). However, the greatest factor for successful implementation is the human one (Ip and Kam, 1998; Power and Sohal, 2000). Total quality management (TQM) is a management philosophy, which focuses on the customers needs and requirements, working toward a continuous quality improvement for the entire organisations production activities (Harrison and Petty, 2002). It has also been described by Cua et al. (2001) as a manufacturing programme aimed to achieve a continuous high-quality improvement by capitalising on the involvement of management, suppliers and workforce. The customer dissatisfaction and the loss of organisations prots could be as a direct result from poor TQM system. Generally, TQM is considered to be an integrated management approach of an organisation, applied to achieve a continuous quality improvement throughout the entire working environment. It aims to satisfy and delight both internal and external

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customers by encouraging every one to be involved for continuously improving quality of the produced products/services by using up-to-date technology (Pyzdek, 2001). For all successful organisations, certainly those that are claiming to be world class manufacturers (WCM), the implementation of JIT, MRPII and TQM is critical to their success. This study will investigate the use of these philosophies in the cement industry in Libya, thereby, investigating its present status and what it needs to do to improve its path on the road to achieving WCM status. It will also allude to the use of these three philosophies in other areas of the manufacturing industry within Libya. 3. The current status of the cement industry in Libya The cement production eld is considered to be a high level competitive industry because of its strong relations to gross domestic products growth for many countries. Libya has paid strong attention to this industry as all the raw materials required to produce the cement are locally available. The importance of the cement in the construction sector as well as for the infrastructure buildings is paramount and extensively used in most of the major civil engineering projects. This makes the cement industry an extremely important manufacturing entity requiring further development and better organisation. The cement manufacturing in Libya is the sole domain of two main rms, producing about 10 million tonnes of cement annually from six plants. This production satises most of the domestic needs, and the surplus is exported. However, as evident, the average capacity utilisation and the manufacturing efciency are about 50 per cent, due to a number of manufacturing planning and control reasons (Mobbs, 2001; World Report International, 2004). Because of its importance, the cement industry in Libya has been made a high priority to be upgraded with advanced manufacturing technologies, as well as to be managed effectively, requiring application of the recent advances in manufacturing technologies and managerial techniques. 4. Investigation of the cement industry Considering the importance of the cement industry in any construction developments around the globe and moreover for Libya, this industry has been considered for investigation in order to suggest improvements in the managerial activities and manufacturing operations. To assess the management commitments on implementing the most effective managerial techniques and philosophies such as JIT, MRPII, and TQM within organisations dealing with the cement industry in Libya, a survey questionnaire was selected to be the research methodology for this study. The questionnaire was designed to investigate the senior management strategy towards implementing manufacturing, planning, control and quality techniques and philosophies within the cement industry in Libya, depending on the perceived opinions from top and senior managers involved in the decision-making process within the targeted industrial organisations. The participants in this study were top and senior managers, working for the surveyed organisations, and all are involved in the key decision-making processes. The surveyed sample organisations were selected from the archives of The Libyan Ministry of Industry. Three separate questionnaire-based surveys were designed to elicit the respondents answers and suggestions. The goal was to learn about the respondents views,

perceptions, knowledge and commitment towards implementing the investigated manufacturing and quality techniques/philosophies within their companies, in terms of planning and development processes, and the strategies being applied towards implementing these techniques/philosophies. Top and senior managers who were involved in the decision-making processes within the targeted companies were the main respondents. Each questionnaire was developed to cover a particular technique/philosophy, as all three (JIT, MRPII and TQM) are considered to be different (but inter-related) and cannot be investigated by only one questionnaire. The three questionnaires were developed to collect the needed data for JIT, MRPII and TQM, including questions covering almost all the related areas of the investigated manufacturing and quality control techniques/philosophies that are related to the entire strategic level within the Libyan cement industry. Each questionnaire was structured into two main sections. Section A (general questions) investigated the organisational prole and the demographic information that included the characteristics of the surveyed company and the respondents details. The questions were in the form of multiple-choice answers. In Section B, the questions concentrated on the JIT, MRPII and TQM strategy/strategies being implemented within the targeted organisations. The questions mainly focused on the state of the commitments and the emphasis towards implementing the investigated techniques/philosophies and other related issues within the surveyed companies. Each question had a multiple-choice answer and the respondents were asked to state on a yes/no/do not know scale. A total number of 60 copies of the questionnaire were sent to those organisations. This represented the total population (100 per cent) available for this survey within the Libyan cement industry. Each copy of the questionnaire was accompanied with a formal letter providing explanations about the research being conducted, and providing some contact details in the case of any inquiries or clarications. Out of the 60 copies sent to the targeted sample, a total of 36 copies were returned with the full-completed questionnaire, giving a response rate of 60 per cent, and thus also representing 60 per cent of the cement industry within Libya. Taking in view of the small number of the total population and the returned questionnaires, not too much weight should be placed on the precise numerical values obtained. 4.1 Data analysis As a rst step of analysing the gathered data, a reliability test was conducted for the entire questionnaire, Cronbachs a is used as the coefcient of reliability for testing the internal consistency of the constructs validated by the factor analysis. The calculated value of Cronbachs a was found to be 0.79. According to Pallant (2005), Cronbachs a coefcient of 0.70 or above is considered adequate for testing the reliability of the entire questionnaire. A summary of the data about the approximate total number of employees within the surveyed organisations is shown in Figure 1. It shows that about 46 per cent of the respondent organisations have an approximate total number of more than 1,000 employees, whereas the lowest per cent rate (9.1 per cent) of the respondent organisations is the smaller organisations, with an approximate number of employees between 50 and 100. This number is for the supplier companies to the cement industry, which are usually on a much smaller size.

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Percent of company respondents

JMTM 19,7

50.0%

40.0%

898

30.0%

20.0%

Figure 1. Showing the approximate number of employees within the respondent organisations

10.0%

0.0% From 50 to 100 From 101 to 500 From 501 to 1,000 More than 1,000 Number of employees within the surveyed organisations

The managerial level of the respondents is shown in Figure 2. It shows that about 67 per cent of the respondents are from the middle management level and about 30 per cent are from the lower level of management. The directors and the general managers of the surveyed organisations also participated, but were only 3 per cent from the total respondents. This modest participation could be the result of the heavy duties which these top managers and directors are involved in. This situation was clearly realised throughout the one-to-one interviews, which were also carried out during this survey. Another reason which may cause this situation is that these top managers are depending on their middle and lower managers to deal with such activities as they are more involved in the organisations strategic business operations. The respondent organisations size based on their annual turnover shows that most of these organisations were with an annual turnover of more than 10 million Libyan Dinars (1LYD 0.43). These participating organisations are considered to be large companies, making about 61 per cent from the overall participation. The medium
70.0% Percent of respondent managers 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Top management Middle Management Lower Management The position level of the respondents

Figure 2. Showing the managerial position of the respondents

organisations, whose turnover is between 5 millions and less than 10 million Libyan Dinars, did not show much interest in this survey. Their participation was only 18 per cent of the total targeted organisations, where as about 21 per cent from the respondents preferred not to mention their annual turnover. Concerning the implementation status of manufacturing, planning, control and quality techniques and philosophies within the Libyan cement industry, the analysed data is shown in Figure 3, showing about 14 per cent of the surveyed organisations are implementing JIT practices, whereas only 7 per cent had implemented MRPII. More interestingly, a range of about 79 per cent from the surveyed organisations had indicated that they are TQM implementers partially or fully. This highlights a major concern for the cement industry. The subsequent tables and discussions focus on the reasons for non or part implementation of these three philosophies. Table I shows the question response for not implementing JIT, MRPII and TQM philosophies. Firstly, looking at the JIT column, it is clear that JIT is not being implemented for a number of reasons within the cement industry. The two major reasons for none implementation is lack of top management support (21.4 per cent) and unfamiliarity with JIT philosophy and practices (57.1 per cent). Surprisingly, there is a
80.0% Implementation level (percent)

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60.0%

40.0%

20.0%

0.0% JIT MRPII TQM

Figure 3. Showing the implementation level of the JIT, MRPII and TQM practices within the surveyed organisations

Reason for not implementing Lack of top management support Lack of interest within the organisation The implementation requires formal approval The technique/philosophy does not t well with the organisation The organisation is not familiar with practices The technique/philosophy is too expensive to implement The technique/philosophy is too complex to implement

JIT (per cent) 21.4 00.0 14.3 00.0 57.1 07.2 00.0

Technique/philosophy MRPII TQM (per cent) (per cent) 00.0 00.0 00.0 00.0 100.0 00.0 00.0 33.3 00.0 66.7 00.0 00.0 00.0 00.0 Table I. Showing the reasons for not implementing JIT/MRPII/TQM (per cent)

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small number of respondents (14.3 per cent) which incorrectly assume that JIT requires some formal approval. One nal point to note for JIT is that only 7.2 per cent of the respondents think that it will be too expensive to implement JIT. On a positive note, with a potential for incomplete implementation, the zero responses within Table I, indicate that the JIT philosophy is seen as a positive methodology. Referring to the MRPII column, a 100 per cent of the respondents are not familiar with the MRPII philosophy. This is a very stark nding for the cement industry as it is not possible to have any efcient manufacturing planning and control system which does not use MRPII or part of it. With respect to TQM implementation, the reasons given for not implementing this are lack of top management support (33.3 per cent) and that TQM implementation requires a formal approval (66.7 per cent). This shows a very little understanding by the respondents as only one part of TQM (ISO 9000) requires formal approval. There is no mention of either the cost or the complexity of implementing the TQM philosophy. One would have expected these two points to have been raised as concerns for not implementing TQM. In summarising Table I, different reasons have been given for not implementing JIT, MRPII and TQM. The major concern, which this table highlights, is the lack of knowledge and understanding of the three philosophies, and therefore its limited implementation. Tables II-IV explores further the management commitment and participation of JIT, MRPII and TQM practices, respectively. Referring to Table II for the JIT philosophy, again it highlights a very worrying picture: the top management commitment to implementing JIT is only 18 per cent with the remaining respondents either stating no comments (18 per cent) and do not know (63 per cent). Similar results are also found for managing clear visionary goals and the sharing of this vision with the employees. Subsequently, the top management have neither committed the necessary resources to
Management commitment and participation on JIT practices The top management is committed to implementing JIT The top management hold clear visionary goals for JIT The top management shared the vision of fullling the total JIT implementation with all the employees The top management developed a detailed implementation plan for JIT The top management ensured the necessary resources to implement JIT The top management identied the necessary champions for the implementation of the JIT programme The top management ensured a clear denition of JIT to all the employees The top management is committed to increase the customer satisfaction Yes (per cent) 18.2 27.3 18.1 00.0 36.4 09.1 18.2 72.7 No (per cent) 18.2 27.2 45.5 54.5 09.1 36.4 45.5 09.1 Do not know (per cent) 63.6 45.5 36.4 45.5 54.5 54.5 36.4 18.2

Table II. Showing the top managements commitment level towards implanting JIT

Management commitment and participation on MRPII practices The top management is committed to implementing MRPII The top management hold clear visionary goals for MRPII The top management shared the vision of fullling the total MRPII implementation with all the employees The top management developed a detailed implementation plan for MRPII The top management ensured the necessary resources to implement MRPII The top management identied the necessary champions for the implementation of the MRPII programme The top management ensured a clear denition of MRPII to all the employees The top management is committed to increase the customer satisfaction

Yes (per cent) 16.7 00.0 00.0 00.0 00.0 00.0 00.0 72.7

No (per cent) 16.6 16.7 50.0 33.3 50.0 50.0 50.0 09.1

Do not know (per cent) 66.7 83.3 50.0 66.7 50.0 50.0 50.0 18.2

Libyan cement industry

901

Table III. Showing the top managements commitment level towards implanting MRPII

Management commitment and participation on TQM practices The top management is committed to implementing TQM The top management hold clear visionary goals for TQM The top management shared the vision of fullling the total TQM implementation with all the employees The top management developed a detailed implementation plan for TQM The top management ensured the necessary resources to implement TQM The top management identied the necessary champions for the implementation of the TQM programme The top management ensured a clear denition of TQM to all the employees The top management is committed to increase the customer satisfaction

Yes (per cent) 86.7 66.7 73.3 73.3 86.6 73.3 73.3 93.3

No (per cent) 00.0 00.0 13.4 13.3 00.0 20.0 20.0 00.0

Do not know (per cent) 13.3 33.3 13.3 13.4 13.4 06.7 06.7 06.7 Table IV. Showing the top managements commitment level towards implanting TQM

implement JIT nor has the detailed implementation plan been developed with the assignment of JIT Champions. All the above results from Table II point to no implementation of JIT or more worryingly no knowledge of JIT implementation. Contradicting this, the top managements commitment to customers satisfaction is as high as 73 per cent. It is difcult to see how this will be achieved with such poor implementation of the JIT philosophy.

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Table III shows the top management commitment and participation towards MRPII implementation. This is even more worrying than JIT implementation as only 16.7 per cent of the respondents were committed to implementing MRPII. For the rest of the results of Table III (for all of the question categories) the respondents had 0 per cent Yes response. There is a very little knowledge, understanding and consequently the vision to implement MRPII philosophy. The customer satisfaction results are same as for JIT implementation. There is a denite need for training and education for top and middle management on the MRPII philosophy. Table IV shows the management commitment and participation for TQM philosophy. As can be seen, the results contained within the table are markedly different and better from the results for JIT and MRPII. It is clear from this table that the management is very committed to implementing TQM philosophy with no results being less than 66 per cent (clear visionary goals), with most results above 70 per cent. This shows that the management has clear understanding of TQM and the necessary resources required to implement it. Results are clear from this table in that the TQM practitioners hold the customer satisfaction to a higher level at 93.3 per cent compared with the value of JIT and MRPII, which were at 73.2 per cent. However, it must be said that it will be difcult to achieve both the quality standards and customer satisfaction level without parallel implementation of JIT and MRPII. A case in point is the low-efciency levels of the cement plants (50 per cent), pointing to impossibility of meeting customer due dates and hence satisfaction with such low levels of efciency. It is also a known fact that less efcient plants reect poor management, which further lead to low-quality levels. 4.2 Discussion The ndings showed that the implementation levels of JIT, MRPII are at modest and poor levels, whereas the TQM survey showed slightly relatively higher levels within the Libyan cement industry. The ndings indicate to the urgent need for ensuring the proper training and education programmes on JIT, MRPII and TQM to all the leadership and management body, as well as the remaining employees. It was also found that the top leadership of the surveyed companies did not show much interest in responding to the survey questionnaires, which reected the previous nding concerning the lack of top management support towards implementing these techniques and philosophies within the Libyan cement industry. The paper also investigated the strategy applied towards implementing JIT, MRPII and TQM within the surveyed companies through investigating management commitment and participation towards this implementation. The results again showed modest levels of the top management commitment towards the implementation of most of the categories being crucial for achieving a successful implementation of JIT, MRPII and TQM within the surveyed industry. The ndings indicate to evidence that there is no structured strategy applied towards implementing JIT, MRPII and TQM philosophies and techniques within the Libyan cement industry. Even when companies had indicated themselves as implementers of JIT, MRPII and TQM (or their sub-elements), it was found that this was being done at a very poor, inefcient and partial levels. Finally, the overall result reects difculties that the Libyan cement industry is suffering from. The paper identied problems and issues that the decision makers

might face towards implementing these techniques and philosophies within their companies. The results also conclude that the cement industry in Libya did not follow any detailed strategic plan towards achieving a successful and effective implementation of the JIT, MRPII and TQM philosophies and techniques. In fact similar ndings have been found for other key industries, such as oil and gas, iron and steel and construction within Libya (Hokoma, 2007). The experiences of ineffective implementations of JIT, MRPII and/or TQM by organisations in other countries such as China, Egypt, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa (to name a few), have been cited by Hokoma (2007) and Sayeh (2007). The ndings from these studies reect those for Libyan industries, particularly for the current cement industry and point to change management as the way forward. Based on the present study within the cement industry, the ndings from other key industries within Libya and the ndings from other countries, the following key areas of focus for improvements have been identied: micro level (internal to the company) and Macro level (external to the company). 4.2.1 Micro level. The achievement of WCM status is at the heart of the proposed framework. Soft elements such as leadership, teams, communication, culture and commitment are crucial to the successful achievement of WCM, as they are all centred around human resource development. The micro level contains these soft elements which are essential in the proposed improvement process towards implementing JIT, MRPII and TQM philosophies and techniques successfully, along with their sub-elements and related issues which support the implementation process. The following sections explain the contents of the proposed strategy for change management for the Libyan cement industry: . Leadership and culture to change towards continuous improvement throughout the entire cement industry. . A strategic and operational plan to achieve company objective of performance excellence. . Specic training, development and on-going education programmes should be planned and implemented, at all levels, to realise the potential of all the human resources. . Financial resource commitment for the delivery of the strategic and operational plan so that training, education and learning, along with implementing the latest technologies and techniques that are needed to improve the cement industry. . Teamwork approach should be used throughout the company. This will allow the cultural change to develop so that all stakeholders have ownership of the changes being implemented. However, the teamwork approach will need openness, communication and a suitable environment for criticising and suggesting ideas for updating and improving the current status within the cement industry. 4.2.2 Macro level. The macro level consists of the proposed strategy for the related institutions within the country along with their roles that can be applied in order to contribute to improving the industries as whole within Libya. The vision of improving the surveyed industry can be fully realised only if all the related institutions such as

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governmental, academia, business, consultancy and technical training centres, work together to attain this common goal: . The governmental institutions can play essential role to encourage all the cement industry to move towards achieving WCM. The manufacturing strategy is the government response to the challenges that most of the manufacturing organisations face. It should be developed in partnership between key stakeholders and manufacturing industries within the country. . The educational strategy within universities and tertiary education institutions within Libya should include comprehensive manufacturing education, as it is the major driver for promoting excellence in the manufacturing industries. Collaboration between industry and academic institutions should be considered of strategic importance to developing the manufacturing industry throughout all levels. . Training centres for human resource development should be created, which emphasis on lifelong learning and on-going training programmes for the manufacturing industry. . The quality standards institutions within Libya should provide the needed consultancy to all the industries based on the related international standards, and evaluating the impact of domestic and international economic policy on the Libyan market competitiveness. . Finally, the consultancy and advisory institutions should be considered as a key element of the governments manufacturing strategy by playing a vital role in assisting the Libyan manufacturing industries to improve their quality, productivity and work towards achieving WCM. The consultancy and advisory institutions should contribute strongly to create the conditions of manufacturing business success and helping the country to respond to the challenge of globalisation. For successful achievement of WCM, the cement industry can immediately focus on the micro level factors, where immediate benets will be noticed. The macro level factors will take longer to implement. However, for long-term and permanent improvements, both levels will need to be implemented. 5. Conclusions This study is the rst to investigate the implementation of the manufacturing, planning and quality control techniques/philosophies within the cement industry in Libya. It makes a contribution by providing an insight into what extent JIT, MRPII and TQM are implemented within the Libyan cement industry. The commitments as well as the emphasis level of the senior management body were widely investigated in order to demonstrate the actual status of the applied strategy/strategies. On the basis of the survey analysis and the response from the related senior managers, the shortcoming and limitations throughout the applied policy/policies were clearly identied, showing that the implementation level of JIT and MRPII practices within the cement industry in Libya is still modest for JIT and non-existent for MRPII. On the other hand, the implementation level of the TQM practices was at a higher level, but in fact this high level does not make much impact unless these organisations also work towards a full

implementation of JIT and MRPII. This is because implementing TQM and not paying much attention towards implementation of JIT and MRPII will not achieve the desired benets to the organisations. Although the implementation of TQM is high, without the implementation of JIT it is difcult to believe that there will be a successful implementation of TQM. In addition, the study has identied problems, issues and attitudes that the decision makers within the industrial environment might face towards this implementation. From the study of other key industries within Libya and from other countries, a suggested way forward was proposed at the micro (internal to the company) and macro (external to the company). The senior management body should pay more attention through applying a clear strategy towards most of the areas that are considered as being crucial in any successful implementation of the JIT, MRPII and TQM techniques/philosophies. Furthermore, more attention should be paid towards generating improved management commitments in the implementation process, and taking the full responsibility to encourage and motivate all the involved teams to take part in the task. Generally, training and ongoing education is essential and should be provided to all the involved teams/employees at all levels. Ensuring a high level of understanding of the whole process to all the involved teams may lead to a complete implementation of all the manufacturing and quality control techniques and philosophies, thereby moving the cement industry towards world class manufacturing.
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Hokoma, R.A. and Khan, M.K. et al. (2006b), The current status of MRPII implementation in some key manufacturing industries within Libya: a survey investigation, Proceeding of the 22nd International Conference on CAD/CAM, Robotics and Factories of the Future, India, pp. 483-90. Ip, W.H. and Kam, K.W. (1998), An education and training model for manufacturing resources planning, Int. Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 248-56. Lai, C.L., Lee, W.B. and Ip, W.H. (2003), A study of system dynamics in just-in-time logistics, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, Vol. 138 Nos 1/3, pp. 265-9. Li, Y. and Man, K.F. et al. (2000), Genetic algorithm to production planning and scheduling problems for manufacturing systems, Production Planning & Control, Vol. 11 No. 5, pp. 443-58. McBurney, P.S.P. and Green, J. (2002), Forecasting market demand for new telecommunications services: an introduction, Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 18, pp. 225-49. McMullen, P.R. (2001), An ant colony optimisation approach to addressing a JIT sequencing problem with multiple objectives, Journal of Articial Intelligence in Engineering, Vol. 15, pp. 309-17. Mobbs, M.P. (2001), The mineral industry of Libya, US Geological Survey, available at: http:// minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country (accessed 9 February 2006). Oral, E. and Mistikoglu, L.G. et al. (2003), JIT in developing countries a case study for the Turkish prefabrication sector, Building and Environment, Vol. 38, pp. 853-60. Pallant, J. (2005), SPSS Survival Manual, 2nd ed., Open University Press, Buckingham. Power, D. and Sohal, A.S. (2000), Human resource management strategies and practices in just-in-time environments: Australian case study evidence, Technovation, Vol. 20, pp. 373-87. Pyzdek, T. (2001), The Six Sigma Handbook, McGraw Hill Professional Publishing, New York, NY. Sayeh, F.S. (2007), Investigating the Factors Affecting the Developments of National Quality Awards, PhD, Loughborough University, Loughborough. World Report International (2004), What is the Historical Background of the Libyan Cement Company, England, available at: www.worldreport-ind.com/libya/ (accessed 3 May 2006). Zaho, X. and Fujun, L. et al. (2002), A study of manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) implementation in China, International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 40 No. 14, pp. 3461-78. About the authors Rajab Abdullah Hokoma began his career in Industrial Engineering in 1990, after his graduation from Industrial Engineering University of Garyounis, Libya, he received his Masters Degree in Enterprise Management at Warsaw University of Technology, Poland. In 2007, he was awarded his PhD in the area of Manufacturing and Quality Control from The University of Bradford, England (UK). Presently, his duties and research at the University of Elmergib El-Khums (Libya) are in the area of manufacturing and quality control, JIT, MRPII, TQM, operations management, logistics and supply chain management. His non-lecturing duties include, among others, (acting as) the consultant and advisor for manufacturing and quality control and liaison with industry and education. Rajab Abdullah Hokoma is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: rhokoma@hotmail.com

Mohammed K. Khan received his BEng, PhD and MBA degrees from the University of Bradford in 1983, 1987 and 1997, respectively. His PhD area of research was experimental and theoretical (Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD) study of air turbulence. During 1987-1990, he worked for Pepsi-Cola International as a Technical Services Manager (covering the whole spectrum of manufacturing and quality) in the Middle East, Far East and Africa Regions. In 1990, he returned to the Department of the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Bradford, as a full time member of the academic staff. Presently he is an Associate Dean within the School of Engineering, Design and Technology. His current research interest is in the area of AI/knowledge-based systems and their application to manufacturing systems, strategy, planning and control. Khalid Hussain received his BSc in Applied Mathematics from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1990. In 1993, he received his PhD from Loughborough University. His PhD area of research was Boundary Element Analysis of Vehicle Interior Noise. During 1990-1993 he worked as a Noise and Vibration Project Engineer at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA). In 1993, he worked as a Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University working in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics. In 1994, he joined the Department of Industrial Technology at the University of Bradford as a full time member of the academic staff. In 1997, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bradford. Presently he is the Director of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering Study at the School of Engineering Design and Technology at the University of Bradford. His current research is in the area of mathematical modelling and computer simulation of the dynamics of mechanical systems, vehicle dynamics, and environmental computational uid dynamics.

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