The influence of total quality management, concurrent engineering and knowledge management in a semiconductor manufacturing firm

For many years, total quality management, concurrent engineering and knowledge management have won considerable attention from industrial practitioners and academia. However, few studies have been conducted on the influence of these three practices among Malaysian manufacturing firms. Hence, the objective of this study is to analyse the influence of TQM, CE and KM on engineering performance in a Malaysian semiconductor manufacturing firm. For this study, surveys were used to obtain empirical data on these three practices. The data was analysed using multiple linear regression analysis. The findings indicated that TQM, CE and KM significantly influences the firm´s engineering performance with the three predictors explaining up to 53.9% of the variance in engineering performance. The findings of this study are useful to managers, engineers and researchers as it provides insights on specific areas that require adequate attention to ensure effective engineering performance.