Title: Customer requirements grouping – a prerequisite for successful implementation of TQM in Technical Education

Authors: Rajdeep Singh, Dinesh Khanduja

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, JCDM College of Engineering, JCD Vidyapeeth, Sirsa, Haryana, India. ' Mechanical Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

Abstract: As the tremendous pressure is being faced by technical educational institutions, both from internal as well as from external forces, the technical institutions in India have begun to understand and accept the significance of customer-centred philosophies. An answer to such pressures is Delighting the customer™. Delighting the customer™ is one of the core elements of Total Quality Management, which emphasises the service relationship between an organisation/institution and its customers. Ultimately, the objective of TQM is to build an institution that produces products or performs services, which fulfil customer requirements and delights them. So it is important to identify the various customers and their requirements and satisfy them. This paper presents the results of an empirical study conducted on selected engineering educational institutions in the state of Haryana, India, to assess the importance assigned to the various customer requirements across the various internal and external customer groups.

Keywords: TQM; total quality management; technical education; customer requirements; education management; India; Haryana; Kurukshetra University; higher education; universities; customer relationship management; CRM; delighting the customer; service relationships.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2010.030876

International Journal of Management in Education, 2010 Vol.4 No.2, pp.201 - 215

Published online: 11 Jan 2010 *

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