Beyond certification: QMS implementation roadmap for technology startups Master Thesis Report in the Master’s Programme Quality and Operations Management Ebrou Shayegh Patat Keerthana Jayaprakash Division of Science, Technology and Society Chalmers University of Technology Gothenburg, Sweden 2018 Report No. E2018:108 Master’s Thesis E2018:108 Beyond certification: QMS implementation roadmap for technology startups Ebrou Shayegh Patat Keerthana Jayaprakash Supervisor and Examiner, Chalmers: Sverker Alänge Supervisor, ReVibe Energy: Erik Godtman Kling, Viktor Börjesson Department of Technology Management and Economics Division of Science, Technology and Society CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Gothenburg, Sweden, 2018 2 Beyond certification: QMS implementation framework for technology startups © E. PATAT, K. JAYAPRAKASH, 2018 Ebru Shayegh Patat, [email protected] Keerthana Jayaprakash, [email protected] Master’s Thesis E 2018:108 Supervisor: Sverker Alänge Examiner: Sverker Alänge [email protected] Department of Technology Management and Economics Division of Science, Technology and Society Chalmers University of Technology SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden Telephone: +46 (0)31-772 1000 Chalmers Gothenburg, Sweden 2018 3 Abstract The aim of this research is to investigate the benefits of a Quality Management System beyond a quality standard certification for technology start-ups operating in the B2B model. The study is grounded in the role of quality management in improving strategic alignment in these scaling start-ups considering the change in their organisation context rather than adopting a best practice approach, focused on compliance. The initial focus was to develop a QMS which would support, the startup company, ReVibe Energy’s scaling strategy, and also to investigate the certification process. Discovering limited existing research and practical examples around the topic, a qualitative and abductive research strategy was adopted. The results were based on, empirical data from ReVibe Energy, six case studies established on observations, interviews and document analysis complemented with theoretical framework. It is concluded that a start-up’s contingency variables (external: environment uncertainty, customer requirements and internal: strategy, culture and customer type) interact with Quality Management (QM) practices and help shape strategic alignment between start-ups and their surrounding environment. QM practices in turn should not be designed with the best practice approach, rather be classified into Quality Assurance: focused on conformance to requirements and standards, Total Quality Control: focused on customer satisfaction and continuous improvement and Total Quality Learning: focused on organisational learning and continuous innovation. The result to ReVibe Energy is presented in the form of a roadmap for a QMS to support strategic alignment while scaling and also achieve quality certification to the ISO 9001:2015 quality standard. 4 Acknowledgement With immense love and gratitude, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to all the people who helped us successfully conduct this study. This has been a period of intense learning for us, academically and on a personal level. We would like to specially thank the following people, whose support has been vital. We are grateful to our supervisor and mentor Sverker Alänge for sharing his expertise and tremendous academic support. His constant encouragement, challenging questions and patient attitude have steered us to put forth our best efforts and widened our research from various perspectives. We owe a special thanks to the team at ReVibe Energy, under the leadership of Erik Godtman Kling, and Viktor Börjesson who have welcomed us into their family. Their insights, participation and genuine interest to learn have kept us motivated to achieve the best possible results. The work environment at ReVibe Energy has been remarkable and a great inspiration. We are immensely indebted to have had the opportunity to interact with the remarkable people from various companies during this research. We are thankful to the representatives from Simplex Motion, Nimbell, LumenRadio, Powercell AB, Vehco, Amparo Solutions, Qamcom Technology, Volvo Cars and SKF for taking the time to provide us with the information that was crucial for the success of this research. Their assistance and transparency has been encouraging. A special thanks to the representatives from Frontside Electronics, Jan Lenning, Sr. External Audit Manager at Sony Mobile Communications and Peter Hallberg, Lead Auditor from Scandinavian Business Certification for generously contributing with their learned insights on the industry. Consulting with them has helped us produce accurate results. We sincerely admire the contribution from all our professors and friends at Chalmers University of Technology. Their unfailing motivation, productive critics and engagement throughout the course have helped us grow both professionally and personally. 5 Finally and above all our sincere gratitude goes out to our parents and families for the constant support and encouragement. Like every other good thing in our lives, we dedicate the success of this research to them and thank them wholeheartedly for the eternal guidance and love. 6 Nomenclature B2B Business to Business BAU Business As Usual CRM Customer Relationship Management ERP Enterprise Resource Planning KM Knowledge Management MRP Material Resource Planning OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer OM Operational Management POC Proof of Concept QM Quality Management QMS Quality Management System SME Small and Medium sized Enterprises SRM Supplier Relationship Management TQM Total Quality Management TQC Total Quality Control TQL Total Quality Learning 7 Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 11 1.1. Background .............................................................................................................. 11 1.1.1. Business environment ...................................................................................... 11 1.1.2. Quality Management System ........................................................................... 13 1.2. Problem statement .................................................................................................... 14 1.2.1 Industrial Perspective ....................................................................................... 15 1.2.2 Academic Perspective ...................................................................................... 16 1.2.2 Challenge at ReVibe Energy ............................................................................ 16 1.3. Research questions ................................................................................................... 17 1.4. Delimitations ............................................................................................................ 18 2 Theoretical framework .................................................................................................. 19 2.1 Organisational Development and the growth stages ................................................ 19 2.1.1 Organisational growth stages ........................................................................... 22 2.1.2 Evolutionary phases and Revolutionary phases of the growth stages .............. 23 2.1.3 Growing through Collaboration ....................................................................... 26 2.2 Evolution of operations management: Theory and Practices ................................... 33 2.2.1 Universal Best Practices ................................................................................... 33 2.2.2 Contingency Theory of Operations Management ............................................ 34 2.3 Quality Management ................................................................................................ 39 2.3.1 QM to support control & learning .................................................................... 42 2.3.2 ISO 9000 series ................................................................................................ 47 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 53 3.1 Research Strategy ..................................................................................................... 53 3.2 Research Design ....................................................................................................... 54 3.2.1 Data collection .................................................................................................. 55 3.2.2 Reliability ......................................................................................................... 57 3.2.3 Validity ............................................................................................................. 57 3.3 Research Methodology ............................................................................................. 59 3.3.1 Literature review .............................................................................................. 59 3.3.2 Interview context .............................................................................................. 60 3.4 Ethics ........................................................................................................................ 61 4 Empirical Data ...............................................................................................................