Conceptualization of quality in supply chain management by using Repertory Grid method (Case study: companies in Zanjan specialized zinc industrial town)

Nowadays, the use of quality management capabilities can lead to an improvement in the operation of supply chains. Regarding this, in recent years, the notion of quality management of supply chain has emerged as a new managing idea, which has combined some aspects of the supply chain management and the quality management. But there has been a limited number of studies in this area. Therefore, the following study tries to explore and define the notion of quality in the management of supply chain by the use of personal constructions of the elite, who in the broad supply chain of zinc industry of province of Zanjan, are in the ventricle of the quality management proceedings. Therefore, based on the above mentioned approach, 20 of the elite were interviewed. Since the quantity of the gained constructions were exceeding than the number to be analyzed, the similar constructions were collected and combined by content analysis approach and then were categorized as secondary construction under proper titles. Then these 31 secondary constructions, based on the theoretical foundations and the literature review, were clustered into 8 dimensions and to ensure more the clustering went under the observation of 15 members of the scientific board of the Management Faculties of universities of Zanjan province. These 8 dimensions indicate the multi-dimension-ness of the notion of supply chain quality management.