International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences

www.ijetmas.com June 2017, Volume 5, Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476

JetAdvantage: Application of TQM in Practice

Sudipendra Nath Roy*

*
(Corresponding Author) Doctoral Student, Department of Operations Management & Quantitative
Techniques, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Prabandh Shikhar, Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore, Madhya
Pradesh, India

Abstract:
Jet airlines opted for total quality management principles (TQM) to enhance customer service quality offered to the
airlines customers in India. Not only the hard measures of service quality i.e. timeliness, maintenance, cleanliness
improved due to the quality management practices, but it also inculcates an approachable and amiable work culture in
the organization. Thus, Jet Airlines achieves a competitive advantage over its competitors by total service quality
betterment, which can be termed as “JetAdvantage”. This article elucidates how practice of quality management
principles helps both the customers and the firm to deliver better service; which, ultimately aid the business to prosper.

Introduction
“Set High Goals and Keep raising them once they’re achieved
If you don’t, somebody will blow right by you while
You’re telling yourself what a great job you’ve done.”
- Carl Sewell
(Customers for Life)
From the genesis of Jet Airlines in 1993, it has always delivered a world class service, on the ground and in
the air, by opting finest practices of both airlines industry and other service related fields in the world, and by
adapting the same to the Indian ambience. At Jet Airways, standards are kept high for every customer contact
possible virtually. That encompass both hard (quantifiable) and soft (intangible) standards. Faults in hard
standards can annoy customers, whereas, soft standards are tools to impress the passengers.
According to Steve Forte, CEO, Jet Airways in 1999, service is emotional labour and
must be sustained and well-managed for customer satisfaction. Also, he argued, that airline travel is not
merely transportation, it is also an experience.1
Keeping service quality as prima-facie consideration, Jet Airlines devised their corporate mission and vision
statements accordingly:

Mission:
 Jet Airways will be the most preferred domestic airline in India. It will be the automatic first choice
carrier for the traveling public and set standards, which other competing airlines will seek to match.

 Jet Airways will achieve this pre-eminent position by offering a high quality of service and reliable,
comfortable and efficient operations.
 Jet Airways will be an airline which is going to upgrade the concept of domestic airline travel - be a
world class domestic airline.

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www.ijetmas.com June 2017, Volume 5, Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476

 Jet Airways will achieve these objectives whilst simultaneously ensuring consistent profitability,
achieving healthy, long-term returns for the investors and providing its employees with an environment for
excellence and growth.2

Vision:
By 2016, Jet will be one of the five most successful international airlines in the world providing our guests
with a friendly and caring experience that will change air travel forever.
Service Philosophy:
Jet Airways strongly believe in delivering world class service by warm and caring professionals who are not
only adept in their respective professional work but has the ability to apply that expertise to the job on
aneveryday basis. For the warm and caring professional mindset, one needs to cultivate the correct set of
values and a mindset that is attuned to the fact that only a warm and personalized service will lead to customer
satisfaction and loyalty towards the airlines.
The efficiency of the western culture, blended with the renowned warmth and hospitality of
the eastern philosophy, is reflected in our blue and yellow corporate colours. The colour blue stands for
professionalism and efficiency, while yellow symbolizes warmth and caring.1

Fig 1: Logo of Jet Airways2

Service Standards of Airlines Industry (Customer’s Perspective):

From the customer’s perspective, quantifiable (hard) and intangible (soft) standards of service are generally,
Hard Standards Soft Standards
 Appearance  Staff who are attentive and ready to help
 Customer-Contact areas  Polite staff
 Lounges  Competence in dealing with any eventuality
 Reservations  Level of tact displayed by staff in difficult situation
 Sales  Staff that appear to enjoy dealing with people
 Check-in  Availability of airline staff
 System Reliability  Responsiveness to individual needs
 Baggage handling  Being rated as an individual
 Punctuality  Approachable staff
 Delay handling  Staff who are warm and friendly
 Aircraft cleaning  Being greeted with a smile and pleasant service
 Maintenance

803 Sudipendra Nath Roy

 International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences

www.ijetmas.com June 2017, Volume 5, Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476

Quality management mainly addresses hard issues of service quality. This approach can be applied to enhance
the performance of the airline's industry.1

Total Quality Management:

Total quality management (TQM) consists of organization-wide efforts to install and make permanent a
climate in which an organizationcontinuously improves its ability to deliver high-quality products and services
to customers. While there is no widely agreed-upon approach, TQM efforts typically draw heavily on the
previously developed tools and techniques of quality control.

TQM Advantage Achieved in Airlines business by Jet:

It is evident that airworthiness, quality, reliability, and safety will have to be the major selling points of
aeronautical products, makes it a compulsory course to adopt, accept, and practice this. For efficiency and
profitability, airlines can benefit from an advanced form of quality management, total quality management
(TQM). This tool goes well beyond satisfying the customer or offering quality products as required by ISO
9000.TQM is a quality approach in which all members of an organization participate in improving processes,
products, services and the culture in which they work. Airlines can benefit from TQM because it is widely
agreed that the industry needs cost reduction and control, without losing the focus on product safety.TQM
emphasizes, among other things, eradicating defects and waste from operations, reducing development cycle
times, reducing product and service costs, and challenging quantified goals and benchmarking.3
QM principles have been already implemented in aviation industries like Jet Airways in combination with
other business strategies in a bid to achieve the enterprise set goals. TQM tool has been regarded as a
successful system capable of achieving significant gains in business performance. Apart from the strength that
it has in the focus on quality and the ability to more adequately bring an enterprise process under statistical
analysis, many regard TQM tool as a business strategy while others refer to it as a well-structured and highly
effective methodology that achieves improvements in product and process variation which in turn enhances
operational performance.3
Besides achieving the quality, intangible benefits i.e. achieving an overall TQM culture has also attained that
aids to employee performance for pursuing the soft ends of service quality. Thus thebusiness performance of
Jet Airways in theairline business in India may be bolstered by Total Quality Management implementation.

Airline Maintenance: Edge by TQM

Aviation Industries must take maintenance issues relatively very serious as it is a foremost determinant of
their continuous existence in the rapidly changing Aviation Market. Given the size, nature, and complexity of
the industry, there is always the prospect of problems, unforeseen circumstances and resistance in the
maintenance sector. In order to fill this gap, TQM implementation in Aviation maintenance sector has been
appreciated. In the airline'smaintenance sector, the fundamentalnature of TQM is to provide serviceswhich
will make customers satisfied. This, in turn, would increase the number ofcustomers and reputation
consecutively,thus increasing sales and profitability ofthe organization.4

Achieving Competitive Advantage by TQM implementation

Service quality is essential in the airline industry as it is a major determinant of competitiveness. Airlines
paying strict attention to service quality will be differentiated from others and will in the course of doing this
gain competitive advantage. Although it’s been argued that price is a major determinant of airline choice by
customers and themost airline would rather compete on it than on service quality. However, not managing
quality will mean no added and assuring value to the airlines.5 The use of a strategic approach to quality
management by airlines will, therefore, improve their competitiveness.6

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 International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences

www.ijetmas.com June 2017, Volume 5, Issue 6, ISSN 2349-4476

Belokar etal. finds that TQM is a strategic tool Indian aviation industry can employ in the
quest to remain competitive. It was also discovered that for the TQM to be properly implemented, everybody
in the organization must be involved from the management to the employees and even the customers.7

Jet Airways: Certification

Jet Airways (India) Ltd. has earned the distinction of receiving the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA)
Registration due to TQM implementation at theproper time to ensure delivering safety and quality to the
customers. The airline has successfully completed the Operational Safety Audit and has been listed in the
IOSA Registry www.iata.org/registry. IOSA is a quality audit program under the continuing stewardship of
the IATA (International Air Transport Association). It is a globally recognized and accepted benchmarking
and evaluation system for assessing the operational management and control systems of an airline.8

Conclusion
It is limpid that from global accreditation agencies to an airlinetraveler all become benefited by TQM
implementation. It helped Jet Airlines to prosper in business even when the industry was incurring a profit
cliff. The practice of such quality control and quality assurance measures not only benefit hard criteria of
service quality but also help to build a quality culture in the organization that has encompassed total service
quality raise. In a nutshell, Jet Airways has proved that TQM implementation is a good initiative to achieve
both profit and excellence in Indian airlines industry.

References
1. Lulla;World-Class Quality: An Executive Handbook, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2004.
2. Official website of Jet Airlines in internet accessed on 12/9/2014 (Link:
http://www.jetairways.com/EN/IN/AboutUs/OurMissionStatement.aspx).
3. B. Immanuel Lazur, L. Jagadeesh, B. Karthikeyan and M. Shanmugaraja; An Initiative to Practice Total Quality
Management in Aircraft Maintenance, Advances in Aerospace Science and Applications, 2013,3:63-68, ISSN 2277-
3223.
4. Pragalathan Tharmarajah,.Hadi Winarto; Total Quality Management in Aviation Maintenance, Final Year Project,
2010, Technical Paper; School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University.
5. Peters, V. J.; Total Service Quality Management, Managing Service Quality, 1999, 6-12.
6. Ghobadian, A., Speller, S., and Jones, M.; Service Quality: Concepts and Models, International Journal of Quality
and Reliability Management, 1994, 43-66.
7. Charu Gupta, Dr. R. M. Belokar; Applications of Total Quality Management in Indian
Airline Industry, International Journal of Science and Research, 2014, 3:1077-81.
8. Official website of Jet Airlines in internet accessed on 12/9/2014
(http://www.jetairways.com/EN/IN/AboutUs/QualityCertification.aspx).

805 Sudipendra Nath Roy