IDENTIFYING, IMPLEMENTING AND EVALUATING TQM PRACTICES IN SELEQ INDIAN SERVICE COMPANIES

Abstract

In the current business environment, there are severe challenges with regard to productivity, profitability, growth, and survival of Indian service companies due to globalization and easier access to information. This has led to an ever increasing demand of quality products and services. Therefore, in order to compete in the global markets service companies in India need to adopt innovative quality practices. To incorporate quality and improve standards, anumber of novel approaches have to be embraced to manage quality for continuous improvement. The most notable among these recommended approaches is the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM). It is aholistic management approach that seeks to improve quality. It requires development of aquality strategy and aframework for its implementation. Many companies claim to have realized substantial benefits, of implementing TQM, in terms of financial results, operating performance, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Liberalization of the economy and globalization have brought many new opportunities and challenges in the Indian service sector. It has now began paying attention to the necessity of improving quality of their products and services to meet the new challenges and gain competitive advantage. The service sector has tremendous potential for economic growth provided it addresses the key issues that form the core of TQM program. Identification of key TQM practices and major barriers are helpful in this regard as this will lead to successful implementation of TQM in the service sector. Several companies have successfully implemented TQM by identifying key TQM practices to achieve better results and improve their position in the global market. Although the benefits of TQM are numerous, the literature review indicates a lack of studies that cover the Indian service sector on the whole. Therefore, this study aims to identify, implement and evaluate TQM practices in select Indian service companies and proposes a TQM model for them. An exhaustive and comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the gaps in the existing literature on TQM. The TQM practices in Indian service companies were studied through aquestionnaire based survey, brainstorming and personal communications with the managers and administrators. Asurvey instrument (questionnaire) was developed and validated to accomplish various objectives ofthis study. An attempt was also made to develop an integrated model using Interpretive Structure Modeling (ISM) and Matrice dTmpacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee a un in Classement (MICMAC) to help TQM/Quality Management (QM) managers, practitioners, and decision makers in selecting, ranking, and understanding the relationships among TQM practices as well as barriers. An Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach was used to develop a model for prioritizing and selecting the bestTQM practices for implementation in Indian service companies that allows TQM/QM managers, practitioners, and decision makers to re-allocate the available resources and focus on the most important TQM practices. The motivation of this research was derived from the need to develop a model for TQM implementation in Indian service companies that could help them improve their quality performance. The main contribution of this research is as follows: • An extensive and detailed literature review on TQM was carried out in order to identify the research gaps and various issues related to TQM in service sector, and to provide strong backgroundto conductfurther researchbased studies on TQM. • The review of published literature identified the 17 key TQM practices (topmanagement commitment; customer focus; training and education; continuous improvement and innovation; supplier management; employee involvement; information and analysis; process management; quality systems; benchmarking; quality culture; human resource management; strategic planning; employee encouragement; teamwork; product and service design; and communication) and 12 major barriers (employee's resistance to change; attitude of employees towards quality; human resource barrier; inadequate use of empowerment and teamwork; highturnover at management level; no benchmarking; lack of coordination amongst the departments; lack of continuous improvement culture; poor planning; lack of communication; lack of proper training and education; and lack of top-management commitment) for further study. • An ISM and MICMAC based integrated model was developed to classify, rank, and develop relationships amongst the identified TQM practices in Indian service companies which will help TQM/QM managers, practitioners and decision makers to understand these^relationships in depth and implementTQM successfully. • Another integrated model based on above methodologies i.e. ISM and MICMAC was worked out to classify, rank, and develop relationships among TQM barriers in Indian service companies in order to provide a clear insight to TQM/QM managers and practitioners, and decision makers to make them aware of these TQM barriers IV which could hinder the effective TQM implementation program and pose considerable challenges to them. An AHP based approach was used to develop a model for prioritizing and selecting the best TQM practices for implementation in Indian service companies. Asurvey instrument was developed based on the literature review, discussions with quality experts, brainstorming, and the objectives of the present study. The purpose of the survey instrument is to capture data to achieve various objectives of this study and may be used for further studies in the service sector. Based on the empirical evidence obtained from various tests it was found that Indian service companies are well aware of the TQM program. However, the adoption and usage ofTQM models in these companies has to be emphasized upon. Empirical evidence shows that Indian service companies do perceive ten TQM practices (top-management commitment; customer focus; continuous improvement and innovation; training and education; process management; quality systems; quality culture; teamwork; product and service design; and communication) as the most important ones and the two practices (supplier management and human resource management) are perceived to be the least important practices. Similarly, 11 barriers were found to be significantly impeding the TQM implementation processes. Regarding the extent of TQM implementation practices in Indian service companies, the result shows that only six practices are effectively implemented while the remaining 11 are only partially implemented or practiced. The results of association ofTQM practices with quality performance show that TQM practices have asignificant and positive association with quality performance. The results of the study reported that five practices (quality culture, quality systems, training and education, teamwork, and benchmarking) of TQM are more significantly associated with the improvement in company's quality performance as comparedto others. . Further, the survey also found that applicability and status of quality tools and techniques is not significantly high in Indian service companies. The quality tools like Kaizen activities; 5-'S' activities; Pareto analysis; and Six Sigma are less in use in the Indian service companies as they are often neglected or overlooked. • Finally, this research work provides a useful framework and a research model for implementation and evaluation ofTQM program in Indian service companies using a valid survey instrument. Keywords: Total Quality Management (TQM); TQM Practices; Service Companies; Topmanagement Commitment; Quality Culture; Quality Performance; Interpretive Structure Modeling (ISM); MICMAC; Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP); Healthcare; Banking; Information Communication Technology (ICT); Hospitality; Model; Identification; Implementation; Evaluation; Indian.