ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PRACTICES IN ETHIOPIA PHARMACEUTICALS MANUFACTURING S.C (EPHARM)

Abstract

This research has been conducted to assess the practices and implementation of Quality Management System in the case company Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing S.C. (EPHARM) which is certified ISO-9001-2015 Quality management System. A descriptive research approach was employed using a questionnaire and interview to get primary data from employees of EPHARM S.C. The data were collected with a response rate of 100% from the distributed sixty seven (67) questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics focusing on the mean, standard deviation and percentages, which is calculated using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 26. The validity of the instrument was checked and internal consistency of the instrument was measured using Cronbach’s Alpha and the result was greater than 0.7, which signifies that reliability of data was good. The results of this study shows that majority of the employees agreed that EPHARM is practicing all the seven QMS principles. The research work has identified lack of employee’s commitment, difficulty of performing internal auditing, lack of financial resources, in sufficient training about QMS implementation, organizational structure limitation and documentation problem as a challenge to implementation of Quality Management System in the Organization. The benefits of the EPHARM from implementation of QMS practices also listed in this study such as, improvement in productivity, improvement in efficiency, reduction in cost and waste, competitive advantage, increase in sale and market share, good customer relations, increase customer satisfaction. This study finally recommended that all potential problems identified in the implementation of QMS to be given a due attention and appropriate preventive and corrective actions planned ahead during the planning and development stage of the system.