Exploring the quality performance implications of temporary workers: the importance of process capabilities

Abstract

The current pandemic with its associated economic downturn has intensified the pressures on companies to produce quality offerings with an increased pressure on cost controls. Across industries companies have reduced their costs by enhancing their ability to operate flexibly, through increasing the use of temporary workers. However, such a reliance on temporary workers is generally associated with deteriorating quality. In order to untangle the relationship between quality and temporary workers we address the following research questions: (1) What are the quality performance implications of employing temporary workers? and (2) Can process capabilities eliminate the potential quality performance deterioration that are due to temporary workers? Process capabilities are conceptualised through the plant’s level of of-the-art manufacturing processes technology. To address our research questions, we utilise survey data collected through the Global Manufacturing Research Group. The results suggest that an increased usage of temporary workers significantly increases reject rates and customer returns. Furthermore, we identified that managers cannot rely on their processes to safeguard them from quality performance deterioration, when employing temporary workers.

KEYWORDS:

• Quality performance
• temporary workers
• process capability
• volume flexibility
• empirical research

Acknowledgements

This research would never have happened without our recently departed friend and colleague Professor Brian Fynes. Without his mentorship some of us would not be academics, without his leadership of the GMRG, the data would never have been collected and without his collegiality this team would never have been built. We all owe him a lot and miss him even more. As Cicero said, ‘the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.jdpower.com/cars/ratings/quality/2019/top-ranked-luxury-suvs-2019-jd-power-us-initial-quality-study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Frank Wiengarten

Frank Wiengarten is a Professor of Operation Management in the Department of Operations, Innovation and Data Science at ESADE, Ramon Llull University Barcelona, Spain. He studies the implications of operations management and supply chain management practices on sustainability outcomes such as occupational health and safety. He has published multiple articles in journals such as Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Decision Sciences Journal, and others.

George Onofrei

George Onofrei is Head of School of Business, at the School of Business, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Ireland. His research interests focus on supply chain practices, sustainability, business data analytics and behavioural operations in manufacturing and service industries.

Brian Fynes

Brian Fynes was Professor of Supply Chain Management at the College of Business, University College Dublin. His research focused on supply chain practices and performance in manufacturing and service industries. He has published over 50 articles in leading OM and SCM journals.

Paul Humphreys

Paul Humphreys is Professor of Operations Management and the Associate Dean of Research and Impact at the Ulster University Business School. He has a Ph.D. and MEng from The Queen’s University Belfast and an MBA from Ulster University. His main area of research interest relates to supply chain management and focuses on interorganisational relationships, supply chain dynamics and outsourcing.