| Summary: | The purpose of the project is to investigate Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Quality Management (QM) in the context of Singapore Shipping Industry. The CSFs are first identified from the various Quality Awards and the Business Excellence framework and these factors are then compared with past studies on their impacts on business performance. The six CSFs are leadership, strategy, process, knowledge, employees and customers, in which they are further categorised into three main sections. The impact of QM is then measured against the respective shipping sectors and the level of customer satisfaction of each company. The research methodology involves three main methods: Literature Review, Survey Collection and Interviews. Prior to sending out the surveys to the industry players, a pilot study was done to find out if the identified CSFs are applicable to Singapore Shipping Industry. Literature review was conducted to investigate the background and the impact that these factors will bring about. A list of 400 shipping companies from various sectors was collated from sources such as Singapore Maritime Directory. 400 surveys were then sent out through postage and electronic mailing and interviews were requested with certain respondents in order to know more about their quality practices from different sectors. A total of 31 survey responses were received and 6 interviews were conducted. Then, results were analysed with Microsoft Excel Program. The purpose of the project was to investigate if the identified CSFs are aligned with that of the unique nature Singapore Shipping Industry and if the practices of each respective CSF are viewed as important to the various shipping sectors. From the research questions established in the introduction, 4 hypotheses were investigated. It was found out that there is some relationship between the extent of quality practices of process and knowledge and the size of companies. These CSFs were ranked in terms of the extent of relationship of the extent of practice of the within the shipping industry. The causation relationship between various CSFs and customer satisfaction was also justified in the project. This could serve as a good platform for the Singapore Shipping Industry to acquire the practices that are essential to an effective QM. Shipping companies in Singapore can then look into these results and determine the approach of pursuing QM. Despite so, the project faces a few limitations. The insufficient low level of response rate and the varied responses from the interviewees had led to results that lacked an all-encompassing viewpoint of the entire industry. Future research may look into a larger group of respondents, including other industry players such as ship brokers to get a more holistic view. It is also suggested that they may look into the reasons why Singapore has a lack of Quality Awards that are specifically for the maritime industry.
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