ABSTRACT
Business, technologies and economies have developed in such a way that organizations recognize the increasing needs to establish mutually beneficial relationships with other organizations, often called ‘partners’. The company that won the work under a fixed price contract went to its piling subcontractor and agreed that, once they were on site, they would jointly invest in detailed investigation and redesign the piling based on real data from the field. Ongoing unpublished research by The Oakland Institute shows the major reasons for selection of ‘global suppliers’ are the pursuit of new markets and reducing costs. Building a global quality management capability needs leadership and a clear quality management policy which is implemented on a global scale. The approach must integrate quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement techniques such as Lean Six- Sigma. The ongoing management of quality on a global scale requires an appropriate balance of stewarding global quality performance, facilitating global improvement and managing risk.
