Title: Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques in Indian service industries: an empirical analysis

Authors: Faisal Talib; Zillur Rahman; M.N. Qureshi

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Section, University Polytechnic, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, (U.P.), India ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee- 247667 (U.Kh.), India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, M S University of Baroda, Vadodara, (Gujarat.), India

Abstract: This study focuses on the state of usage of quality tools and techniques in Indian service industries. To achieve this objective, a comprehensive instrument was constructed and distributed to select Indian service companies. The usage of quality tools and techniques was surveyed and then analysed. The study sample consists of a group of 172 selected Indian service companies from various industries like healthcare, information and communication technology (ICT), banking, and hospitality. The survey findings revealed that usage of tools and techniques for quality improvement in Indian service companies is low and majority of the Indian service industries implement easiest and simple to use quality tools and techniques. The survey also showed some areas for further improvement like usage of advanced and complex quality tools such as 5-'S', Pareto analysis, Kaizen activities, and business process reengineering (BPR) which are barely used. Further, some managerial implications and future scope of this study are also reported at the end.

Keywords: total quality management; TQM usage; service industries; quality tools; quality techniques; India; services; healthcare industry; information and communications technology; ICT industry; information technology; banking industry; hospitality industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJQI.2013.056985

International Journal of Quality and Innovation, 2013 Vol.2 No.2, pp.105 - 119

Published online: 19 Jul 2014 *

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