TY - JOUR A1 - Beshah, Birhanu A1 - Woldecherkos, Mesfin Demissie A1 - Ebinger, Frank T1 - National quality infrastructure: Resources, Services, and collaboration-oriented capability assessment framework JF - International Journal of Business Excellence N2 - This paper aims to review the existing national quality infrastructure (NQI) capability assessment approaches and ultimately develop a more inclusive framework that addresses all components of NQI. Therefore, the study reviewed previous efforts and noticed that most of them lack comprehensiveness or focus on a few NQI elements and use few indicators readily available online. Therefore, this study addresses these issues and allows future researchers to consider this conceptual model for NQI capability assessment. Accordingly, the study review documents focused on NQI capability collected from different sources. Backward and forward literature searches were conducted to identify additional and up-to-date documents. Finally, content analysis was performed on selected literature to identify the possible NQI capability indicators. The identified indicators were further simplified and segregated into five NQI categories: standardisation, metrology, accreditation, conformity assessment, and the regulatory system. And three NQI capability alternatives: resources, services, and collaboration. Figure 1 shows the framework. Table 1, Figures 3, 4 and 5 summarise and depict each capability assessment indicator under the five capability categories and three alternatives. Therefore, this framework is used as an index to assess the capability of the NQI system. KW - national quality infrastructure; NQI; standardisation; metrology; accreditation and conformity assessment; technical regulation; resources; services; collaboration. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbex.2022.10050862 SN - 1756-0047 VL - 1 IS - 1 PB - Inderscience Publishers ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Demissie, Mesfin A1 - Duga, Abdi A1 - Beshah, Birhanu A1 - Ebinger, Frank T1 - CALIDENA methodology for quality infrastructure service assessment and improvement in wheat value chains JF - International Journal of Quality and Innovation N2 - Wheat is one of Ethiopia's most important cereal crops in terms of the area of land allocated, the volume produced, and the number of farmers engaged in its production. About 4.7 million farmers produce 3.9 million tons of wheat across 1.6 million hectares of land. Despite the significant potential of the country, some challenges exist to attain wheat self-sufficiency. These challenges spread across the wheat value chain (WVC); wherein quality-related issues are prominent. Therefore, assessing the national quality infrastructure (NQI) service and offering mitigation schemes is a goal to pursue. To do so, this paper evaluates NQI services in the WVC and proposes an improvement mechanism using the CALIDENA methodology. Results show WVC is subjected to a significant number of quality-related issues mainly associated with conformity assessment service (calibration, certification, inspection, and testing) and standards. Finally, the paper concludes with recommendations for NQI service improvement to improve the WVC. KW - CALIDENA, quality issues, quality improvement, national quality infrastructure, NQI, wheat value chain, WVC Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1504/ijqi.2022.122313 SN - 1756-6975 VL - 6 IS - 2 SP - 162 EP - 189 PB - Inderscience Publishers ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Demissie, Mesfin A1 - Beshah, Birhanu A1 - Ebinger, Frank T1 - A comprehensive review of the national quality infrastructure framework JF - International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management N2 - Scholars define national quality infrastructure (NQI) differently. However, the basic components and scopes are similar. NQI is a less explored topic with few studies conducted, therefore, this paper is instated to provide insight. With this in mind, the paper reviewed basic concepts, components, and the interrelationship among the NQI components. Moreover, NQI development models, benefits, and challenges are also included in the review. Different literature from different sources dealing with NQI was collected and reviewed. Findings showed that NQI represents the peculiar and joint application of all its components including technical regulation and intellectual property rights. However, the presence, functionality, and international and regional integration of each NQI component determines the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. This ultimately promotes trade, innovation, and growth. Finally, besides the effort made by different NQI affiliated international and regional organisations to promote the concept, this review also strengthens the efforts to make NQI more visible. KW - national quality infrastructureNQIstandardisationmetrologyaccreditation and conformity assessment Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpqm.2022.126933 SN - 1746-6474 VL - 37 IS - 3 SP - 361 EP - 383 PB - Inderscience Publishers ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Demissie, Mesfin A1 - Tsegaye, Dagne A1 - Beshah, Birhanu A1 - Ebinger, Frank T1 - Quality infrastructure services capability assessment in the coffee value chain JF - International Journal of Quality and Innovation N2 - Coffee generates about 25%-30% of total export and securing about 15 million people's livelihoods in Ethiopia. But, it has several quality issues. Studies show a total of 272 million USD of which 99% is due to the non-conformance cost of the export product incurred annually. This justifies mitigating quality problems in the sector is important. Therefore, to deal with this issue coffee quality related data were collected from Ethiopian National Quality Infrastructure Institutions (ENQI) and Coffee Quality Inspection and Certification Association (CLU). Eighteen experts purposively selected from both institutes were asked to associate quality service with defects. Finally, lack of accreditation has the highest contribution followed by conformity and metrology with a share of 83.3%, 75%, and 54% for defects points. Moreover, issues like control of temperature and humidity in storage and transport, lack of soil nutrition testing, inspection performance, and commitment to standards implementation are issues that needs to be improved. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1504/ijqi.2021.117189 SN - 1756-6975 VL - 5 IS - 2 SP - 158 EP - 180 PB - Inderscience Publishers ER -