Strategic Management and Business Policy

7A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices

in Medium Enterprises Ramanand Yadav*

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction The implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) is a participative management approach. It involves a decision to change the mindset of people from existing quality improvement practices to enhanced quality awareness, education, training, involvement, communication, skill upgradation and problem-solving attitude. It focuses on laying the foundation of quality improvement with emphasis on zero-defect programs, quality control circles, motivation programs, developing mission statements, establishing objectives and practicing quality tools and techniques. It demands an unprecedented top management commitment for initiating quality improvement activities as top management plays a significant role in emphasizing commitment of employees, customers and suppliers. It aims for continuous improvements in organizational

* Labor Enforcement Officer (Central), Block No. 10, Civic Centre, Marhatal, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. E-mail: [email protected]

This paper describes a seven-point framework for effective Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation in Medium Enterprises (MEs). This framework shows that top management commitment and involvement is indispensable in the formulation and implementation of various quality adoption steps. The significant steps of the framework include development of mission and vision statement, formulating implementation plan, ensuring employee involvement, establishing education and training programs and starting implementation phase. Finally, continuous improvement is required to maintain the implementation effort for excellence orientation. The primary objective of this study is to prescribe a roadmap for TQM practicing MEs to adopt excellent quality practices in a simplified way. The author has also tried to highlight the theoretical background while emphasizing the importance of the steps of quality improvement practices. The idea behind taking MEs for adopting TQM practices is that the characteristics of MEs are most suited for it. However, TQM is a modern quality management practice which can be applied successfully to any type of enterprises, irrespective of their affiliation.

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 20158

efficiency through remarkable reduction in rework time and process variance (Kumar et al., 2002). It seeks to aim at quality in everything, every time and at all levels (Sornam, 2003) by orienting excellence and embedding self-control in each work unit for total customer satisfaction. In the long term, it may lead to disappearance of the need for inspection, because quality builds in the design itself (Sarvan, 1997).

TQM consists of three words, where, ‘Total’ signifies “made up of the whole”; ‘Quality’ shows “the degree of excellence a product or service provides” and ‘Management’ is “the act or manner of handling, controlling, directing, etc.” (Dale et al., 1999). It creates a completely win-win relationship in all areas. Although, it is applicable in every type and function of organization, yet Medium Enterprises (MEs) show the unique characteristics of flexibility, flat type organization structure, innovation capability and customer orientation which make them free from complexities of big enterprises and drawback of small-scale enterprises. However, in India, the implementation of TQM in medium enterprises is still in infancy stage. For this fallback, the significant reasons may include:

• Lack of availability of power and other infrastructure facilities required for the smooth running of MEs.

• Lack of technical know-how, lack of training facilities, poor industrial relations, undeveloped production and distribution channels and inadequacy of management.

• Incapable team management with deficiency in knowledge, lack of resources, and lack of time for developing competitive strategies (Leung and Lo, 2000).

• Cynical management behavior when they are unable to benefit from self-regulation and management tools, in the process of tackling quality problems (Sammalisto, 2001).

• Unable to market their products strategically because of various lacks, i.e., lack of marketing strategy, lack of strong technical and domain expertise, lack of strong client reference and competitive price pressure from big and multinational corporations (Mittal, 2003).

• Inability to identify technological needs because of poor financial situation, lower R&D participation, poor adoptability to changing trade needs and isolation from technological hubs (Kharbanda, 2001).

• Failures associated with benchmarking, employee involvement, addressing cultural issues and maintaining consistence in their quality journey.

The Roadmap For effective TQM implementation, the seven-step roadmap given in Figure 1 can help MEs to incorporate quality improvement activities into their organization structure. This may also provide structural guidelines for MEs interested in adopting TQM as

9A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

an instrument of quality improvement. It can also help practitioners to assess the needed skills and resources for adopting quality practices. It also highlights the training requirements, methodology and importance of waste elimination programs. The MEs, in particular, may get more benefits with their very nature of flexibility, innovativeness, conducive organization structure and customer orientation. This roadmap is also important because it signifies the simple steps, which every medium enterprise can follow easily.

Figure 1: A Roadmap of TQM Implementation in MEs

1. Top management commitment

2. Development of mission, vision and quality plan

3. Development of implementation plan

4. Ask for total involvement by all

5. Establish education and training program

6. Start implementation phase

7. Maintain the implementation effort with continuous improvement

Top Management Commitment The importance of top management commitment in TQM implementation, particularly at the start of implementation phase, is exceptional. It is possibly the most important

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 201510

principle which appears everywhere in the organization and requires providing an inspiring vision and making strategic directions that can be understood by all. It propagates that the commitment has to start at the ‘top’ in setting business strategies based on using product quality as a weapon to capture the global market share and rewarding employees for achieving excellence in product quality (Bhatt, 2002). The commitment provides flexibility and focuses on and comes in all shapes and sizes (Robbins, 2003). It can be assured by learning of quality practices (even from employees, if needed) from one’s successful and unsuccessful experiences as well as from modern management methods of benchmarked organizations. This learning attitude can lead to an enhanced decision-making ability of managers. The commitment is also assured by strongly encouraging employee participation in quality improvement activities by way of suggestion, acceptance, taking employee action responsibilities and by being open in listening to the voice of employees. The training can also help in establishing commitment by ensuring alignment of TQM practices with organizational goals, helping removing roadblocks and placing resources for effective implementation of TQM in the organization.

Top management commitment is also essential for effective TQM implementation because:

• It improves performance by influencing other TQM practices (Kaynak, 2003), i.e., employee empowerment, participation, supplier quality management and customer satisfaction.

• It has a direct effect on infrastructure development, sophistication, process management, efficiency and stakeholder participation (Ahire and Ravichandran, 2001).

• It is essential for an organization’s integrative functions (Chin and Choi, 2003) as it helps to promote a culture of commitment by devoting at least one-third of their time on quality (Dale et al., 1999).

• All management strategies are influenced by their views on quality (Yeung et al., 2003).

• High top management commitment positively affects employee commitment and provides higher quality products (Kaynak, 2003).

• Lack of top management commitment has emerged as a reason for the failure of TQM in some organizations (Kaynak, 2003) and possibly the most frequently mentioned problem (Wiele and Brown, 1997).

However, for effective TQM implementation, the following commitment practices are important:

• Top management must practice the philosophy of Management By Wandering Around (MBWA) and should visit the customers, departments, plants and suppliers; talk to the people, thereby pushing the problem-solving and decision

11A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

making to the lowest appropriate level by delegating authority and responsibility (Dale et al., 1999).

• As a transformation leader, top management should understand the collective aspiration of their followers and be able to create institutions which can empower employees to satisfy those needs (Bennis and Burt, 1985).

• The behavior of top management should be organization-oriented which can create clarity and unity of purpose within the organization and an environment in which the organization and its people can excel.

• They should understand the strategies, philosophies, values and goals and transmit it throughout the organization.

• Since leaders are champions of change, they should accept managed risk; with open communication throughout the entire organization, they should manage by walking around and setting a vision based upon company’s goals and visions (Dale et al., 1999).

• They should know their team’s skills so that they can turn these skills into strengths (Robbins, 2003).

• They should take employees as their partners in meeting the ultimate goal of delighting the customers (Gatchalion, 1997), and should provide the optimal conditions for workers to do their job in the best possible manner.

• They should inspire the employees, both individually and collectively to make their best efforts by their ability, personality, education and experience (Mohanty and Lakhe, 2002).

• They should serve as role models, lead by example, set directions and create customer orientation, clear and visible quality values and high expectations to ensure that customer requirements are understood and met throughout the company.

• Management should clearly communicate with operational staff that the ultimate objective of TQM is quality improvement for better customer satisfaction and business process streamlining. The decisions should be based on quantitative facts; otherwise, it may lead to rumors, which can be counterproductive (Aritomo, 2003).

• Top management is to outline the quality goals, quality policies and quality plans so that employees get reminded constantly that the customer, not the product is the top priority (Eng and Yusof, 2003).

• The top management should possess certain leadership traits, i.e., passion, populism and disciplined responsibility (Feigenbaum and Feigenbaum, 2003).

• They should pursue long-term business success instead of short-term benefits by focusing on product quality rather than yields. They should believe that

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 201512

improvement takes time and with the continuation of TQM practices, implementation can be improved.

• They should trust employees and believe that they can do better as well as encourage employees to list the firms’ shortcomings and report their own working problems.

• They should have self-knowledge, because if they do not know themselves and what drives them to do what they do, they may misinterpret and misuse the data, by which their capabilities may get compromised. The lack of self-knowledge is the most common source of leadership failures (Bennis, 2004).

• They must always be certain that they are assuring the full spectrum of data and opinion (Bennis, 2004).

• Since they are the most influential people with their behavior, personality, commitment, perseverance and customer focus, they should bear the responsibility for influencing the organization with the values, goals, vision and culture, which is key to the success and survival of the organization.

• They should sincerely embrace TQM principles with strength and commitment and understand the actions that are required to be successful.

• They should be committed towards establishing a firm with quality as a primary goal, while spreading quality consciousness throughout the organization.

In MEs, top management commitment is a prerequisite for developing, implementing and delegating strategies and action plans. Top management must proclaim the company vision and ensure the excitement and motivation of staff for achieving it. Their visible conviction and demonstration in the form of cooperation, praise, encouragement, team development and creation of condition for excellence can go a long way in creating the commitments toward TQM. However, the management in medium enterprises are busy and often preoccupied with their day-to-day activities. They find it hard to spare themselves for appraisal, improvement and planning for activities. Nevertheless, to excel and position in a global market place, they need to be committed towards TQM practices.

Development of Mission, Vision and Quality Policy Statements Mission statement is the nature of the organization’s commitment to provide a sense of purpose, direction and priorities for developing and maintaining the quality plan. It represents the organization’s vision as to where it wants to be at a particular time in the future. Generally, it is a clear statement of purpose for employees, customers and suppliers for long-term interest and survival of the organization. It is tied to the organization’s operations through projects, actions, rewards and recognition. It is usually viewed as a declaration of corporate philosophy where the objective is to influence the thoughts and deeds of employees. A mission statement is usually one

13A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

paragraph or less in length and is easy to understand. It answers the questions like, “Who are we?”, “Who are the customers?”, “What we do?”, and “How do we do it?” (Dale et al., 1999). However, it should be broad enough to invite the organizational involvement in interpreting, refining and making it operational (Panda and Gupta, 2003).

For effective mission development, the involvement of all stakeholders, transformational leaders, top management support, effective communication and congruity of organizational and individual values are required (Panda and Gupta, 2003).

The top management plays an important role in the development of mission statement by articulating, rationalizing and finding a mechanism to engage the whole organization.

A vision is a desired goal or outcome to achieve. According to Mazur (1998), vision is how the organization sees itself or wishes to be seen at some time in the future, i.e., by 5-10 years. He is also of the view that vision statement should contain a direction or indicator of improvement along with a measurable target value of how much improvement the company wants to achieve in terms of its current performance level and its envisioned performance level and a time limit by when the improvement should be realized. The quality vision is a statement regarding what an organization will become and how good the organization intends to be in the future and it creates a common focus for the business organization (Dalela and Saurabh, 1999). It also focuses on meeting the needs of the customers, providing for total community involvement, developing systems to measure the benefit and manage change to support systems, and striving for continuous improvement to make the product better (Shukla, 2002).

The vision is like a lighthouse—pointing the way and showing the hazards. It must be powerful enough to ignite the combined imagination of employees and provide a rallying point to create positive stretch. However, it must always be slightly beyond reach but not a dream of impossible nature. It is to be translated into meaningful functions, activities, tasks and subtasks. The target has to be assigned in consultation with the employees for their translation into inputs and outputs in quantitative terms so that the realism involved in the vision is appreciated (Ramaswamy, 2000).

In Indian companies, the vision building exercise is either consultant-centric or begins and ends with the top management, and there is hardly any percolation, sharing and exchange of reactions and contribution of employees across the organization (Singh and Bhandarkar, 2002). In the case of MEs, managers are entrepreneurs who like a challenging vision for their companies with everyone’s support for positive development.

Quality policy can be defined as formally expressed quality intention and direction of an organization by top management. It is the documented outcome of the process of strategic quality planning and services to provide internal consistency between the goals and the process of a firm by aligning each member, division and element of the

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 201514

organization towards the long-term objectives of the firm (Arora, 1998). It is an organization’s statement of its commitment to quality. It is a guide to everyone, which articulates the principles of TQM that management has identified as being most appropriate and describes the quality objective of the TQM system. It describes who is to take TQM leadership and how products and services can be provided to customers. The CEO writes it with involvement in the form of feedback and approval by the quality council. It is the main documented reference point for planning and putting TQM into practice. It is formally expressed overall intention and direction of top management to quality. It involves a simple, brief, clear and believable statement which is available to everyone to benchmark their action in conformance with standards and values. However, a quality policy needs to be defined, documented, understood, implemented and maintained (Mohanty and Lakhe, 2002). It should be evolved with the participation and consensus of concerned and should take into account the enterprise background and culture, technology and market trends as well as management’s long-term goals. A written policy serves as a reference to remove vagueness and ambiguity and covers some or all aspects of customer satisfaction.

Formulation and implementation of TQM policy and programs require establishment of harmony and congruence among the various business policies with a focus on TQM for achieving significant results (Sundararaju, 1997). The advantages attached with quality policy are predictability to outsiders, guide to managerial action, initiated quality thinking and establishes legitimacy. It can be communicated in an authoritative manner with permissible auditable practices. The disadvantages attached to this are structural in nature where they require detailed meetings for refinements of drafts, before and after implementation; and many a time, it plays a restrictive role to the innovation process with narrowed range of action.

Development of Implementation Plan Quality improvement plans are activities of establishing objectives, requirements and application of quality system elements. These plans should be made in such a way that they can be implemented in practice with focus on eliminating the major problem areas. As an evolutionary process, it can be effectively implemented with systematic improvement plans. As a systematic approach, it should include time dimension, such as time for preparation, the actual start of the implementation, observation and checking, investigation and analysis of results. It should also include the department responsible for implementation, which should be informed about the time availability for implementation. The premise that every firm has some weak areas and possibilities of improvement is the idea behind quality improvement. The firm should find the possibilities that can digest and provide real nourishment. In this process, the improvement plan should pay sufficient attention towards consolidating the strong areas for its better improvement. Generally, improvement plan takes 2-3 years to bear fruit and starts with a single quality plan and goes through implementing suggestion system, developing recognition and reward system, rotating job positions for cross-

15A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

training of employees, starting a newsletter and other steps towards its ultimate objective of stakeholder satisfaction, both now and in the future.

Total Involvement of All Total involvement means giving employees or their team the ownership of a particular quality goal. Since people at all level are the essence of an organization as a driving force for improvement, their full involvement enables organization benefit. The purpose of total involvement is to motivate employees in quality-related activities using a variety of management techniques (e.g., teams, task force approaches, suggestions, quality control circles, collaborative decision making, etc.), where everyone in the organization works towards the goal of customer satisfaction (Isakson and Spencer, 2000). It is crucial in achieving and sustaining a high level of quality (Bhatt, 2002). It is a process for empowering the members of an organization to make decision and to solve problems appropriate to their level in the organization. It is an approach to improving quality and productivity which is a means to better meet the organizational goals of quality and productivity at all levels of an organization (Dale et al., 1999). It can be achieved by making every employee part of the organization (Eng and Yusof, 2003). It needs to facilitate TQM implementation because TQM needs both the commitment and creative ideas of employees.

In a TQM organization, focusing on employees’ involvement is crucial because employees create good working conditions in the process of producing and delivering of quality outputs. The proper training, tools, information and empowerment required for quality excellence help their involvement and true utilization. It is felt necessary for changing the organization culture, fostering individual development, training, establishing awards, incentives and encouraging teamwork. Here, training can be attained through classroom, on the job, coaching in problem-solving, job rotation and pay for demonstrated knowledge and skills.

Establishment of Education and Training Programs Training and development is an effective participative methodology of providing necessary skills and knowledge to make the things happen as desired. Training is a critical component of workforce management because it is impossible to improve any operation without a well-trained workforce (Kaynak, 2003). Training and development is very important for employees to be highly productive and requires interpersonal skills, ability to function within teams, problem-solving, decision-making, job management and performance analysis and improvement. It transforms employees into problem-solvers (Kaynak, 2003), which is necessary for improving processes and must be continuous for the implementation efforts to sustain. It also helps in building an environment of cooperation, competitiveness, teamwork, and innovative ways of doing things where every employee learns to shoulder more responsibility for effective improvement. In a TQM organization, training of the deployment of TQM systems

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 201516

creates an excitement about the quality process among all stakeholders, employees and staff. Training also helps employees to think creatively. But Lock (1996) is of the view that training should be provided only when there are clearly defined needs to be satisfied. These needs may be as follows:

• The need to improve the general quality of products and services;

• The need to improve a specific aspect of quality; and

• The need to learn to use a quality control or quality improvement system.

In MEs, training and development programs can be initiated by:

• Training the manpower with the use of basic quality management tools, which may include cause-and-effect analysis, flow charts, process flow diagrams, Pareto charts, run (trend) charts, histograms, scatter diagrams and control charts.

• Initiating a training plan drawn up in line with the firm’s strategies, objectives, available resources, current employee skills and their job requirements.

• Making training relevant, flexible and affordable.

• Gearing the training to specific, clearly defined objectives, which must be prepared as close as possible to the time it is required.

• Reinforcing training to ensure the desired results.

• Appointing a trainer who can help in learning with the help of OHP, flipcharts, workbooks and exercises through training sessions.

• Appointing a facilitator who can carefully observe the group activities and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the discussions.

• Both the trainer and facilitator can also act as mentor, innovator and coach in this process of ensuring learning practices in the organization.

Start Implementation Phase Implementation phase is related to realization of tangible and intangible dreams that result by quality improvement. It also signifies that key principles of TQM such as customer satisfaction, employee empowerment and continuous improvement are well accepted and deployed within the firm.

In MEs, the TQM implementation involves the following steps:

• Selection of appropriate quality tools, techniques and initiatives for continuous improvement.

• Creating processes in which individuals or groups will “do it right the first time” and “do the right things right”.

• Planning the implementation process carefully so that it can be customized according to the type of firm, industry condition, and maturity of firm and general readiness by all for change acceptance (Dooley and Flor, 1998).

17A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

• Maintain consistent commitment to quality by continuously rejecting the status quo.

• The implementation initiative should start with existing resources immediately and try to sustain the momentum with a focused vision.

• A thorough and systematic analysis of customer expectations.

• A purpose-driven and management-led TQM initiative because employees perform according to beliefs and needs of their managers.

• Address and defend the intended quality initiative of implementing organization and promoting it throughout the organization.

• A common goal for both management and employees because conflict in goals leads to generation of human errors.

• Diffusing TQM success stories based on small case experimentation of competitors or other organizations by management. It will demonstrate that managers are familiar with the latest approaches and capable of leading the organization.

• An appropriate reward and incentive scheme to mobilize TQM principles.

• Retaining ‘big picture’ vision for making difference to customers (Richard, 2003).

Maintaining the Implementation Effort with Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement means all systems and processes in the organization are subject to constant evaluation and improvement. It can be defined as a commitment to continuous examination of technical and administrative processes in search of better results (Ojha, 2000). It is commitment and system of process which are commonly examined in an organization in search of better methods (Sammalisto, 2001)and, based on flexibility, to make changes where one or other innovation plays an important role. It has a significant impact on the development of strategy as well as its implementation (Chapman and Hyland, 2000). It is the road to prosperity and people must develop improvement consciousness and identify the opportunities for improvement on a permanent and continuous basis. The continuous improvement should commence with identifying how to improve the ways of doing things, where every system, program or project has a precision for an improvement cycle. Improvement made is required to keep pace with the times. Here improvement can be defined as results, which can only be claimed after beneficial change in an organizational performance. It is continuously striving for improvement, from small to incremental and to breakthroughs (Wang and Miller, 2000). It is a proven technique based on the premise that each employee is capable of making small improvement and significant progress is possible by addition of small contribution by a large number of employees in an organization. TQM

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 201518

organizations emphasize on continuous improvement for achievement of customer satisfaction because the basic thrust of TQM philosophy is improvement after improvement (Sundararaju, 1997). However, it is not focused upon impulses other than those coming from the customer.

In MEs, TQM implementation efforts are maintained through continuous improvement. In an organization, the idea of improvement comes from the people who are directly or indirectly involved. In an organization, the continuous improvement practices help to change the attitude where the defence of status quo and resistance to innovation are not treated as normal management behavior. Instead, every effort at continuous improvement leads to congratulating people on their identifying problems instead of fear of reprisals for reporting problems. However, in many cases, the behavior puts hindrances in the way of continuous improvement because it takes more time to change. In this case, the required effort may need to be doubled. To ensure continuous improvement of processes and products, specific tools are available to provide objective ways of measuring and controlling variations in the production process. The first tool is Statistical Process Control (SPC), which is an effective way to improve quality on a continuous basis. The second tool is benchmarking which seeks out best practices and products from within the firm or among competitors so that processes and products can be improved by learning from the experts. The third is the collection and use of quality data, which includes sharing of both financial and non-financial information with all employees and providing necessary feedback to achieve continuous improvement in quality throughout the firm (Barker and Cagwin, 2000). The continuous improvement practice is of three types, i.e., gradual, incremental and breakthroughs. Gradual improvement is a continuous, never-ending change process. Incremental improvement is described as continual improvement. Here, both, gradual and incremental can be described as Kaizen practices, whereas breakthroughs can be described as a giant leap, which tend to arise out of chance discoveries.

In a business excellence model, continuous improvement practices focus on enablers, i.e., leadership, process, resources, organization structure, and people processes which help better business results, i.e., productivity, cost, time to market, delivering responsiveness, profit maximization and customer and employee satisfaction. It requires a disciplined approach based on trust, with everyone in the organization striving to improve the system (Eng and Yusof, 2003).

The maintenance of continuous improvement effort in TQM implementation is a critical part of roadmap, which demands continuous education, training and development, mentorship and an orientation for quality improvement from all personnel of the enterprise. It also requires that all personnel should integrate their acquired skills with their current job and continue to do so on a continuous basis.

Conclusion The roadmap discussed in this paper prescribes a seven-step model for effective TQM implementation in MEs. As a first step, top management commitment can be ensured

19A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

by practicing MBWA, being transparent, empowering employees, developing development strategies, undertaking managed risk, evolving teamwork practices, serving as role models, evolving quality goals and sincerely practicing TQM principles as an ultimate objective of customer satisfaction. The mission, vision and quality policy statements constitute the second important step of this roadmap for directing and effecting implementation of quality plan of the organization. In this, the mission statement asks for the involvement, commitment and support across hierarchies. Vision statement is a management and consultant-centric exercise for assimilating and encouraging complete workforce towards realizing the organizational goals. However, quality policy shows an intention and direction of the commitment of the organization for a consistent movement towards organizational goals. As third important step, development of TQM implementation plan is the physical establishment of objectives, specifying requirements and applying it in a time-bound manner. TQM implementation, generally, targets weak areas of the organization and takes about 2-3 years in fructifying the results. Employee involvement is also a prerequisite in this prescribed roadmap which advocates distribution of ownership of quality goal amongst employees because it motivates employees towards quality-related activities in the form of team formation, providing suggestions, forming quality circles and taking part in decision making as the ultimate objective of customer satisfaction. It not only results in organizational development but also in individual development.

In the roadmap, training and development holds an important position for providing necessary skills and knowledge to undertake the desired benchmarking practices for overall excellence-oriented management. It requires interpersonal skills, functional ability, decision-making, job management and performance analysis on the part of the trainers and facilitators in their mentor, innovator and coaching roles. The implementation phase focuses on realizing the tangible and intangible dreams, which MEs can work out with appropriate quality tools, creating favorable processes, customizing plans according to their needs, maintaining commitment, initiating with existing resources, analyzing customer expectations and spreading it through the organization. The plan can be implemented by adopting a common corporate goal to avoid conflict by allowing appropriate reward and incentive schemes and above all retaining a ‘big picture’ vision. Since the TQM implementation is a journey and not a destination, it requires continued effort for maintaining ‘improvement after improvement’.

References 1. Ahire S L and Ravichandran T (2001), “Innovation Diffusion Model of TQM

Implementation”, IEEE Transactions of Engineering Management, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 445-464.

2. Aritomo K (2003), “Six Sigma for Japanese Service Companies in the United States: Deloitte Toucho Tohmatsu”, Japanese Business Solutions Protopics, Jul-Aug, pp. 1-4.

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 201520

3. Arora K C (1998), TQM and ISO 14000, S K Kataria and Sons, Publisher and Distributors.

4. Barker K and Cagwin D (2000), “New Evidence Relating TQM to Financial Performance: An Empirical Study of Manufacturing Firms”, Accounting School of Business, The University of Texas at Brownsville.

5. Bennis W (2004), “Self-Knowledge at Times of Leadership”, Hindustan Times, p. 2, Harvard Management Update, Chandigarh (Power Jobs Supplement), New Delhi.

6. Bennis W and Burt N (1985), Leaders: The Strategy for Taking Change, Harper and Row, New York.

7. Bhatt K S (2002), Total Quality Management: Text and Cases, Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai.

8. Cambridge J A M and Tucker M L (1998), “TQM Implementation in State Departments of Transportation: View from the Firing Line”, Journal of Management in Engineering, Jan-Feb, pp. 49-57.

9. Chapman R and Hyland P (2000), “Strategy and Continuous Improvement in Small-to-Medium Australian Manufacturers”, Integrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 171-179.

10. Chin K S and Choi T W (2003), “Construction in Hong Kong: Success Factors for ISO 9000”, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 129, No. 6, pp. 599-609.

11. Ciampa D (1992), Total Quality: A User’s Guide for Implementation, Addison Wesley Publishing Co.

12. Dale H B, Carol B, Glen H B and Mary B (1999), Total Quality Management, 3rd Edition, Pearson Education Inc., Singapore.

13. Dalela S and Saurabh (1999), ISO 9000: A Manual for Total Quality Management, Sultan Chand and Co. Ltd., New Delhi.

14. Dooley K J and Flor R F (1998), “Perceptions of Success and Failure in Total Quality Management Initiatives”, Journal of Quality Management, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 157-164.

15. Eng Q E and Yusof S M (2003), “A Survey of TQM Practice in the Malaysian Electrical and Electronic Industry”, Total Quality Management, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 63-77.

16. Feigenbaum A V (1986), Total Quality Control, 3rd Edition, McGraw Hill Co., New York.

21A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

17. Feigenbaum A V (2001), “How to Manage for Quality in Today’s Economy”, Quality Progress, Vol. 34, No. 5, pp. 26-37.

18. Feigenbaun A V and Feigenbaum D S (2003), “Quality Not Quality Management”, Quality Progress, Vol. 36, No. 10, pp. 44-48.

19. Gatchalian M M (1997), “People Empowerment: The Key to TQM Success”, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 429-433.

20. Huxtable N (1995), Small Business Total Quality, Chapman and Hall, London.

21. Isakson H R and Spencer M (2000), “Total Quality Management and Residential Real Estate Agency Issues”, Journal of Real Estate Research, Vol. 20, No. l, pp. 179-188.

22. Kanji G K and Asher M (1995), Total Quality Management Process: A Systematic Approach, Productivity Press (India) Ltd., Madras.

23. Kawamoto N (1998), “Honda’s Structural Reforms, TQM Implementation”, Quality Quest, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 21-25.

24. Kaynak H (2003), “The Relationship Between Total Quality Management Practices and Their Effects as Firm Performance”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 405-435.

25. Kharbanda V P (2001), “Facilitating Innovation in Indian Small and Medium Enterprises: The Role of Clusters”, Current Science, Vol. 80, No. 3, pp. 343-348.

26. Kumar V, Garg D and Mehta N P (2002), “JIT/TQM in Indian Industries”, Productivity, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 215-224.

27. Leung W L and Lo V H Y (2000), “Strategic Planning for Superior Quality Management, Project Competition on Quality Management”, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Hong Kong.

28. Lock D (1996), Encyclopedia of Management (Quality Management), Vol. 1, Jaico Publishing House, Mumbai.

29. Mazur G (1998), “Strategy Deployment for Small and Medium Enterprises”, ISQFD-98, Sydney, available at http://WWW-Personal.Engin.Umich/~gmazur/ tqem /student.htm.

30. Mittal S (2003), “Indian SMIT Sector: Poised for Growth”, IIBM Management Review, Vol. 15, No. l, pp. 73-76.

31. Mohanty R P and Lakhe R R (2002), TQM in Service Sector, Jaico Publishing House, Mumbai.

The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XIV, No. 4, 201522

32. Mukharjee N (2001), “World Trade Organisation and Small and Medium Enterprises from a Developing Country’s Perspective: A Study of Indian Small Scale Industries”, The Indian Economic Journal, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 18-29.

33. Ojha A K (2000), “TQM: How Can We Make the Implementation Effective?”, Vikalpa, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 19-29.

34. Panda P (2003), “The Quality Panorama”, Indian Management, Vol. 42, No. 1, p. 12.

35. Panda A and Gupta R K (2003), “Why Mission Statements Become a Showpiece? Case of an Indo-American Joint Venture”, Vikalpa, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 23-47.

36. Ramaswamy P R (2000), Implementing TQM in Government, MIG, January- March, pp. 11-17.

37. Ramaswamy P R (2001), Tools for Implementing TQM in Government, MIG, July- September, pp. 5-9.

38. Richard B (2003), “Managing Six Sigma Change Resistance”, available at www.sixsigma.com. Accessed on November 3, 2003.

39. Robbins S (2003), “Great Leadership for Great Teams”, Working Knowledge, HBS Weekly Publication, October 27.

40. Sammalisto K (2001), “Developing TQEM in SMEs: Management Systems Approach”, IIIEE Dissertations, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

41. Sarvan S (1997), “Total Quality Management: Key to Success”, Analyst, November, pp. 37-53.

42. Selvakumar R S and Natarajan K (2000), “Total Quality Implementation Strategies for Educational Institutions”, The Indian Journal of Technical Education, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 61-63.

43. Shukla S (2002), “Personality as a Factor of Teaching Effectiveness”, Indian Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 11-15.

44. Singh P and Bhandarkar A (2002), Winning the Corporate Olympiad: The Renaissance Paradigm, Vikas, New Delhi.

45. Sornam S A (2003), “TQM for Human Resources in Information Sector”, SALIS E Lib, Vol. 1, January-June, pp. 9-13.

46. Sundararaju S M (1997), Total Quality Management: A Primer, Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., Mumbai.

47. Wang H K C and Miller W G (2000), “The Importance of TQM Concepts and Instruction as Perceived by Industrial and Vocational Training Personnel”, Journal of Industrial Technology, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-10.

23A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

48. Wiele V T and Brown A (1997), “ISO 9000 Series Experience in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises”, Total Quality Management, Vol. 8, Nos. 2&3, pp. S300-S304.

49. Wiele V T and Brown A (2002), “Quality Management Over a Decade: A Longitudinal Study”, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 508-523.

50. Yeung A C L, Chan L Y and Lee T S (2003), “An Empirical Taxonomy for Quality Management System: A Study of the Hong Kong Electronics Industry”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 45-62.

Reference # 07J-2015-11-01-01

Copyright of IUP Journal of Operations Management is the property of IUP Publications and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.