Research Paper
2 1Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms:
An Empirical Study
Himanshu R Hedaoo* and Pallawi B Sangode**
© 2019 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
* Student (Semester IV, Operations Management), Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Management Studies and Research, Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: himanshuhedaoo@ymail.com
** Assistant Professor (Operations Management), Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Management Studies and Research, Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India; and is the corresponding author. E-mail: pallavi_sangode@yahoo.com
Introduction With increasing focus on the quality of products and services, the scope of Total Quality Management (TQM) is widening day by day. TQM is being practiced by manufacturing firms on a priority basis. Whether it is a product or a service, customers are willing to pay for better quality. Organizations are also striving more to derive best quality from the given resources. Organizations are moving from small q to Big Q. Small q focuses on quality only, while Big Q’s focus is beyond the product and includes processes and customers also.
TQM stresses on three principles. The first principle is customer satisfaction which is a relative concept that varies from one customer to another. The second principle is
Total Quality Management (TQM) is the process of involving all employees of the organization in its continual improvement to achieve customer satisfaction. But does that really mean involving all, i.e., employees, customers and top management? When organizations say that they implement TQM, do they practically implement the principles of customer satisfaction, employee involvement and continual improvement? The present paper attempts to answer these questions through a study on a set of 21 manufacturing firms in Nagpur region selected through convenience sampling. Correlation analysis is used to test the hypothesis. The findings reveal that customer satisfaction is practiced by the firms extensively though their customers are majorly business-to-business. Trust-based relationship with the suppliers and committed leadership from the top management have contributed the most to better practicing of the TQM principles.
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employee involvement, which means involving employees in quality management by encouraging them to use quality control tools and techniques to track performance and identify areas needing improvement. The third principle is continual improvement, which is a never ending process and is driven by knowledge and problem solving (Bhat, 2015).
Figure 1 presents the TQM wheel that explains the content of TQM. Customer is said to be the main focus of the quality management process. Satisfaction to the customer comes through continual improvement in the quality process and involvement of the employees. Thus, these three activities become the main principles of TQM. The other principles that support the core of TQM are identifying right supplier and right purchase process, process design, product or service design, use of decision-making tools, and identifying the best practices in the industry, i.e., right benchmarking (Krajewski and Ritzman, 2010).
Figure 1: TQM Wheel
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The various constructs of TQM that every organization executes to approach zero defect and better quality are:
• Benchmarking: It is a systematic and continuous process of measuring and comparing an organization’s business processes against process leaders anywhere in the world to gain information for performance improvement (Bedi, 2011).
2 3Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
• Product Design: It refers to transforming the new, innovative and effective ideas into product through process. Customer needs and desires are satisfied by products and services with the help of efficient product design.
• Process Design: It is a complex process requiring expertise, and correct set of process design tools are required to accurately depict a process. The major decision related to process design is to analyze the required job for converting the raw material into the finished product (Garg, 2012).
• Deming Wheel: Also known as Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, it is a problem-solving process adopted by the firms that are engaged in continuous improvement.
• Failure Mode and Effect Analysis: It is the detailed study of a product design, manufacturing operation or distribution network to determine which features are critical to various modes of failure.
• Statistical Process Control: It is the application of statistical techniques to determine whether the output of a process conforms to the product or service design.
• Total Productive Maintenance: It seeks to maximize equipment effectiveness throughout the lifetime of the equipment by maintaining optimum condition in order to prevent unexpected breakdowns, speed loses and quality defects.
Figure 2 shows the elements of TQM. The TQM concept supports the philosophies of customer focus, continual improvement, defect prevention, and recognition that responsibility for quality is shared by all employees of an organization. Supplier partnership or supplier teaming deals with identifying the best suppliers and building a proper rapport with them for advanced procurement of material with defined quality. Employee involvement means giving empowerment to them, deriving committed leadership and building cross-functional teams to deliver quality output. A continual improvement approach means following a never-ending process of improvement through the philosophies of Deming (PDCA cycle ad Juran’s Trilogy of quality planning, quality control and quality improvement). Benchmarking refers to identifying the best practices in the industry and implementing them.
Figure 3 presents the three principles of TQM and the functional relationship between them.
Rahman and Attar (2009) in their study presented an investigation result on current quality control practices within the manufacturing industries in the Western region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It assessed the prospects of implementing TQM technique and principles in order to improve product quality and customer satisfactions, and overall improvement of market share. Data analysis revealed that many companies in the western region of the KSA have low level awareness of TQM implementation and its benefits. This is because of emphasizing on one aspect of quality program ISO 9000 QMS. The result of the survey pointed out some of the major difficulties in
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Figure 3: Functional Relationship
Total Quality Management Principles
Employee Involvement
Continual Improvement
Customer Satisfaction
Figure 2: Elements of TQM
Committed Leadership
Cross- Functional
Teams
PDCA Cycle
Employee Involvement
Employee Empowerment
Advanced Procurement
Supplier Partnership
Total Quality Management Framework
Continual Improvement
Juran’s Triology
Statistical Process Control
Quality Tools and Processes
Total Productive
Maintenance
Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
Benchmarking
Identify Best
Practices
Implement Best Practices
Identify Best
Supplier
2 5Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
1 Information on Manufacturing Companies in MIDC Around Nagpur, available at http:// mianagpur.com/companies-list/industries-name/
2 Kendall’s Tau-b Using SPSS Statistics, available at https://statistics.laerd.com/spss-tutorials/ kendalls-tau-b-using-spss-statistics.php
implementation of ISO 9000 QMS such as increase in the amount of paperwork, difficulties in controlling too many suppliers/subcontractors, understanding different terminologies used in the standards, and the need for full time quality manager. Against this backdrop, the present paper attempts to understand the extent to which the theoretical concept of TQM is practiced in the manufacturing firms in India.
Objective The objective of the paper is to study the implementation of TQM principles in the manufacturing firms.
Based on the objective, the following hypothesis was framed:
H 0 : There is no significant relationship (correlation) between employee
involvement and continual improvement principles of TQM practiced by the manufacturing firms.
H 1 : The correlation coefficient between the employee involvement and continual
improvement principles of TQM is significantly different from zero.
Data and Methodology
Population and Sample Size There are around 400 firms in and around Nagpur region. Randomly a few firms were selected for the sample. Since most firms did not respond to the telephonic method of data collection, firms were selected as per the convenience of the researcher based on the distance and time taken to collect data.1 21 manufacturing firms from the 35 firms selected responded to the questionnaire. Table 1 shows the type of manufacturing firms selected for the study.
A structured questionnaire comprising of 17 determinants of TQM practices was designed for primary data collection (see Appendix). These determinants were put on a five-point Likert Scale, with 1 being never practiced and 5 being extensively practiced.
Statistical Tool Used Kendall’s tau-b ( b) correlation coefficient was used for identifying the relationship intensity between the two practices of TQM that were put to test.2 Kendall’s tau-b is a nonparametric measure of the strength and direction of association that exists between two variables measured on at least an ordinal scale. It is considered a nonparametric alternative to the Pearson’s product-moment correlation when your data has failed one or more of the assumptions of this test. It is also considered an alternative to the nonparametric Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (especially when you have a small sample size with many tied ranks).
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Table 2: Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Cronbach’s Alpha Based on Standardized Items No. of Items Alpha
0.928 0.931 17
Reliability of Data A 17-item questionnaire was devised to measure the level of implementation of TQM practices. In order to understand whether the questions are reliable, Cronbach’s alpha test was run on a sample size of 10 manufacturing units (Table 2).
Type of Manufacturing Unit No.
Defence/Explosives Manufacturer 3
Industrial Wire, Electrodes, etc. Manufacturer 3
PVC Pipes, Tanks and Fittings Manufacturer 2
Automobile Manufacturer 1
Construction Equipment Manufacturer 1
Mineral and Metal Manufacturer 1
Farm Equipments Manufacturer 1
Grinding Wheels, Abrasives, Ceramics Manufacturer 1
Ayurveda Products Manufacturer 1
Printing Inks Manufacturer 1
Rubber Products Manufacturer 1
Water Supply, Municipal Casting Products Manufacturer 1
Pharmaceuticals Preparations Manufacturer 1
Manufacturing and Assembly 1
Tyre Rethreading Unit 1
Others 1
Table 1: Type of Manufacturing Firms Selected for the Study
2 7Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
It is observed from Table 3 that removal of any question would result in a lower Cronbach’s alpha. Therefore, none of the questions can be removed. Removal of any question would not lead to any improvement in Cronbach’s alpha. And we can also see that the ‘Corrected Item-Total Correlation’ value for all items is fairly good. This proves the reliability of the questions used in the instrument.
Communication of TQM to the Employees 50.0000 105.111 0.491 0.928
Development of Cross-Functional Working Teams 49.9000 101.433 0.661 0.923
Employees Involvement in Decision Making 50.4000 108.489 0.684 0.924
Trust-Based Relationship with Suppliers 50.3000 101.122 0.692 0.922
Adoption of Advanced Procurement 50.1000 99.656 0.704 0.922
Recognition and Rewards to Employees 49.8000 103.511 0.732 0.921
Employee Empowerment 50.3000 109.344 0.292 0.933
Committed Leadership 48.9000 110.544 0.561 0.926
Use of Statistical Process Control Tools 49.4000 108.044 0.542 0.926
Use of Total Productive Maintenance 49.9000 107.656 0.603 0.925
Practice of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis 50.4000 104.489 0.651 0.923
Identification of Best Practices 50.2000 105.289 0.731 0.922
Implementation of Best Practices 50.4000 112.044 0.377 0.929
Development of Zero Defect Mentality 51.2000 90.400 0.885 0.916
Use of Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle 51.2000 97.733 0.825 0.918
Customer Satisfaction 50.2000 97.511 0.836 0.918
Customer Feedback 50.2000 105.956 0.685 0.923
Table 3: Item-Total Statistics
Scale Mean
If Item
Deleted
Scale Variance
If Item
Deleted
Corrected Item – Total
Correlation
Cronbach’s Alpha If
Item Deleted
TQM Constructs
Results and Discussion The structured questionnaire used for the collection of data comprised various parameters that contributed to the effective practices of TQM. Practices on employee involvement in the holistic process of quality making, improvement, controlling and assurance, tools for process improvement, and statistical process control were rated by the organizations.
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Table 4: Descriptive Statistics for Implemented TQM Constructs
Communication of TQM to the Employees 21 21 4 3.10 0.19 0.89
Development of Cross-functional 21 21 2 2.86 0.13 0.57 Working Teams
Employees Involvement in Decision Making 21 21 4 2.95 0.20 0.92
Trust Based Relationship with Suppliers 21 21 2 3.33 0.16 0.73
Adoption of Advanced Procurement 21 21 2 2.57 0.16 0.75
Recognition and Rewards to Employees 21 21 3 3.05 0.19 0.86
Employee Empowerment 21 21 2 3.14 0.14 0.65
Committed Leadership 21 21 3 3.33 0.17 0.80
Use of Statistical Process Control Tools 21 21 4 2.81 0.24 1.08
Use of Total Productive Maintenance 21 21 3 2.95 0.19 0.86
Practice of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis 21 21 3 2.67 0.21 0.97
Identification of Best Practices 21 21 3 2.95 0.18 0.80
Implementation of Best Practices 21 21 2 3.00 0.12 0.55
Development of Zero Defect Mentality 21 21 4 1.86 0.23 1.06
USE of Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle 21 21 3 1.95 0.21 0.97
Customer Satisfaction 21 21 2 4.00 0.14 0.63
Customer Feedback 21 21 3 3.71 0.16 0.72
N 21
TQM Constructs N Range Mean Std.
Error SD Variance
As a practice of involving the employees in the process of decision making and empowering, eight determinants were identified. They were: communication of TQM to the employees, development of cross-functional working teams, employee involvement in decision making, treating suppliers as internal employees and having trusted relationship with them, making advance procurement through them, recognizing and rewarding the employees, and committed leadership from the top management.
Table 4 presents the descriptive statistics for implemented TQM constructs.
It was identified that the manufacturing firms focused on their suppliers more for right material on right time of right quality which contributes to the quality of the product (Figure 4).
The variables that contribute to continual improvement were: use of statistical process control tools, use of total productive maintenance, practice of failure mode and effect analysis, identification of best practices, implementation of best practices, development of zero defect mentality, and use of PDCA cycle. The data revealed that firms have a
2 9Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
major focus on the implementation of the best practices (Figure 5). This was followed by the use of total productive maintenance in the organization. Total productive maintenance is a system of maintaining and improving the integrity of production and
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Figure 4: Practicing the Principle of Employee Involvement by the Manufacturing Firms (in %)
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Figure 5: Practicing the Principle of Continual Improvement by the Manufacturing Firms (in %)
70 60 50 40 30 20 10
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quality systems through the machines, equipment, processes, and employees that add business value to an organization.
According to Abbie et al. (1995), for customer satisfaction, the best-practice that firms do is operate differently from others. Each of them has established similar attitudes, procedures, and organizational structures before undertaking a customer satisfaction strategy. Although there are similarities between the firms, it was found that different implementation approaches can be successful. Firms can either focus on customer satisfaction first or begin to implement TQM, adding a customer satisfaction focus later (Figure 6).
The customers to the manufacturing firms can be those who purchase their products for inputs to other processes or use it, i.e., end customers. Satisfaction of both types of customers is equally important. Customer feedback is the means to reach the customer ’s heart. The data reveal that manufacturing firms practice customer focus to an extent of 76%.
The data reveals that among the three major principles of TQM, the manufacturing firms have highest focus on customer satisfaction. The manufacturing firms implement the practices that derive customer satisfaction to the extent of 41% (Figure 7). This can be contributed to taking regular feedback from the customer for product or service satisfaction. The data also reveals that the manufacturing firms lack in implementing the processes that support continual improvement.
Hypothesis Testing The Kendall’s tau-b degree of correlation coefficient between the principles of employee involvement and continual improvement is obtained as 0.500 (Table 5).
Figure 6: Practicing the Principle of Customer Satisfaction by the Manufacturing Firms (in %)
81
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Customer Satisfaction Customer Feedback
3 1Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
Table 5: Kendall’s Tau-b Correlation Coefficient of the TQM Constructs
Correlation 1.000 0.500** 0.306 Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) – 0.003 0.079
N 21 21 21
Correlation 0.500** 1.000 0.405* Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.003 – 0.022
N 21 21 21
Correlation 0.306 0.405* 1.000 Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.079 0.022 –
N 21 21 21
Employee Involvement
Continual Improvement
Customer Satisfaction
Note: ** and * indicate correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed) and 0.05 level (2-tailed) respectively.
Employee Involvement
Continual Improvement
Customer Satisfaction
The critical values associated with df = 19 are 0.433 (df = n – 2 = 21 – 2 = 19).
If r is less than the negative critical value or r is greater than the positive critical value, then r is significant.
Figure 7: TQM Practices Implemented by the Manufacturing Firms
Employee Involvement (32%)
Continual Improvement (27%)
Customer Satisfaction (41%)
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Since r = 0.500 and 0.500 > 0.433, r is significant.
This means that there is a significant relationship between the principles of employee involvement and continual improvement practiced by the manufacturing firms.
The concept of employee involvement involves empowering the employees to take decisions, developing the cross-functional teams for sharing the vivid experiences to generate quality work, and recognition and rewards to the employees for the quality of work done by them. It is observed that firms that implement employee-focused activities manage to implement the tools that contribute to continual improvement. Employees, when happy and content in the organization, do not resist the changes with respect to new system and new methodology.
The Kendall’s tau-b degree of correlation between customer satisfaction and employee involvement is 0.306. This moderate degree of correlation can be attributed to the non-involvement of employees in the customer satisfaction-driven activities, customer feedback, etc.
Conclusion The present paper, identifying the constructs of TQM, examines the extent to which TQM principles are implemented by the manufacturing firms. The main findings of the study are:
First, among the constructs of TQM principles that are prominently implemented by the manufacturing firms in Nagpur are communication of TQM to the employees, employees’ involvement in decision making, use of statistical process control tools and development of zero defect mentality.
Second, it can be concluded that there is a positive correlation between the employee involvement and continual improvement. Companies that empower the employees and involve them in the decision making could implement process improvement tools effectively and work on continual improvement programs.
Limitations and Scope for Future Studies: This study was performed on selected manufacturing firms of the Nagpur city. The manufacturing firms had diverse profiles, some being automobile manufacturing, while some being pipes and plastic manufacturing. Future studies can focus on same type of manufacturing firms to study the TQM practices. Firms that use the tools of process management like failure mode and effect analysis and quality function deployment can further be studied in detail to understand their practical applications. This would help to bridge the gap between the conceptual theory and practical application of the tools.
Future studies can also focus on process improvement tools like Six Sigma and Kaizen. How the companies implement the process of DMAIC under Six Sigma as an improvement principle of TQM and the hurdles to the implementation of the methodology can be studied in detail.
3 3Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
References 1. Abbie Griffin, Greg Gleason, Rick Preiss and Dave Shevenaugh (1995), “Best
Practice for Customer Satisfaction in Manufacturing Firms”, available at https:// sloanreview.mit.edu/article/best-practice-for-customer-satisfaction-in- manufacturing-firms/
2. Bedi Kanishka (2011), “Benchmarking”, Quality Management, p. 41, Oxford University Press.
3. Bhat Shridhara K (2015), “Principles of TQM”, Total Quality Management: Text and Cases, pp. 55-57, Himalaya Publishing House.
4. Garg Ajay K (2012), “Product and Process Design”, Production and Operations Management, pp. 139, 173, McGraw Hill.
5. Krajewski L J and Ritzman L P (2010), Operations Management, 5th Edition, p. 214, Pearson.
6. Rahman Anisur and Attar Muhammad (2009), “Implementation of TQM in Manufacturing Industries in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, 22nd International Congress on Condition Monitoring and Diagnostic Engineering.
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Name of the Organization :
Type of the Organization :
Designation of the Respondent :
Department :
Communication of TQM to the Employees
Development of Cross-Functional Working Teams
Employees Involvement in Decision Making
Trust-Based Relationship with Suppliers
Adoption of Advanced Procurement
Recognition and Rewards to Employees
Employee Empowerment
Committed Leadership
Use of Stati- stical Process Control Tools
Use of Total Productive Maintenance
Appendix
Questionnaire
TQM Practices Never Practices
Poorly Practiced
Moderately Practices
Well Practiced
Extensively Practiced Comments
3 5Implementation of Total Quality Management in Manufacturing Firms: An Empirical Study
Reference # 07J-2019-02-02-01
Appendix (Cont.)
Practice of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
Identification of Best Practices
Implementation of Best Practices
Development of Zero Defect Mentality
Use of Plan-Do-Check- Act Cycle
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Feedback
TQM Practices Never Practices
Poorly Practiced
Moderately Practices
Well Practiced
Extensively Practiced Comments
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