Quality Management in Pakistan's Knitwear Industry

Although quality is a critical success factor for all types of business, its salience is to be driven home in Pakistan's business environment in general and its export-oriented business segment in Pakistan in particular. As a first part of this effort, we chose to study quality management in Pakistan's knitwear industry, whose combined share with readymade garments in Pakistan's total exports rose to 16.7% by 1997/1998. We mailed a postal self-completion questionnaire to 59 members of the Pakistan Knitwear and Sweaters Exporters Association. The response rate was 29%. It was found that Pakistan's knitwear industry was in various stages of development in quality management, with greater concentration in the quality inspection mode. Although there are attempts to graduate to quality assurance and beyond, it was found that considerable distance has yet to be traversed before Pakistan's knitwear industry acquires a quality philosophy as a part of its overall business approach industrywide. As part of a statistical test, however, advanced quality management concepts were found applicable in Pakistan, although the application is currently limited. These concepts must gain in popularity.