When Brazilian companies became aware of the need to search for competitiveness, after the opening of the National marked in the 1990's, quality programs were widely disseminated in many sectors and customer satisfaction became a very important issue. This study investigates the contribution of quality programs adopted in petrochemical companies for their competitiveness, analysing the case of polypropylene's resins and compounds and the relationship between their producers and processors. The results obtained extend the knowledge about customer-supplier relationship between processor and petrochemical companies. Also, the research findings make it possible to establish two distinct quality patterns for polypropylene's compounds and resins markets. Customer satisfaction was confirmed in the survey. It was observed that quality programs did improve the competitiveness of the companies, after the latter ensured the quality of supply procedures and focused on customer satisfaction.
Quality; competitiveness; petrochemical; polypropylene; processing industry
