Assessment of TQM Practices in Automobile Industry : An Empirical Investigation

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a way to continuously improve performance at every level of operation, in every functional area of an organization, using all the available capital resources. This study is an attempt to identify the critical factors for TQM implementation through survey-based research carried out in Indian automobile industry. A questionnaire was prepared to measure the effectiveness of five TQM practices, viz., top management support, leadership, customer focus, Statistical Process Control (SPC), and benchmarking. Extents of various TQM aspects are investigated from data collected from 29 respondents, and the relationships between different TQM practices are investigated using them. Some findings are consistent with the established TQM norms, and some provide an understanding of the neglected domains of TQM in automobile sector. It is also observed that some specific TQM approaches have found their wide dissemination in a particular segment of industry