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Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques in

Indian service industries

Article  in  International Journal of Quality and Innovation · January 2013

DOI: 10.1504/IJQI.2013.056985

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Int. J. Quality and Innovation, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2013 105

Survey on the usage of total quality management

tools and techniques in Indian service industries:
an empirical analysis

Faisal Talib*
Mechanical Engineering Section,
University Polytechnic,
Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh-202002, (U.P.), India
Fax: +91-1332-285565, 273560
E-mail: ftalib77@yahoo.co.in
E-mail: ftalib77@gmail.com
*Corresponding author

Zillur Rahman
Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology,
Roorkee- 247667 (U.Kh.), India
E-mail: yusuffdm@iitr.ernet.in
E-mail: zrahman786@gmail.com

M.N. Qureshi
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
M S University of Baroda,
Vadodara, (Gujarat.), India
E-mail: mnqureshi@rediffmail.com

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.

Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

106 F. Talib et al.

Keywords: total quality management; TQM; service industries; quality tools;

quality techniques; Indian.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and
Qureshi, M.N. (2013) ‘Survey on the usage of total quality management tools
and techniques in Indian service industries: an empirical analysis’, Int. J.
Quality and Innovation, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.105–119.

Biographical notes: Faisal Talib is an Assistant Professor at the Mechanical

Engineering Section, University Polytechnic, Faculty of Engineering and
Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, (U.P.), India. He received his
PhD degree from IIT Roorkee and his Masters in Industrial and Production
Engineering from AMU. He has 16 years of teaching experience and has
more than 50 publications to his credit in national/international journals
and conferences. His work has been published and cited in various journals
of repute. His special interests include quality engineering, total quality
management (TQM), service quality, quality concepts, industrial engineering
and management, operations management, and quality management in service
industries.

Zillur Rahman is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management

Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He is a recipient of the
Emerald Literati Club Highly Commended Award and one of his papers was
The Science Direct Top 25 Hottest Article. His work has been published and
cited in various journals including Management Decision, Managing Service
Quality, International Journal of Information Management, Industrial
Management and Data Systems, The TQM Magazine, Business Process
Management Journal, International Journal of Service Industry Management,
Information Systems Journal, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Business
and Industrial Marketing and International Journal of Computer Integrated
Manufacturing, to name a few.

M.N. Qureshi is an Associate Professor at the Mechanical Engineering

Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, The M S University of
Baroda. He earned his graduation and post graduation degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from M S University of Baroda and later on his PhD degree from
IIT Roorkee, Roorkee. He has more than 70 publications to his credit
in national/international journals and on conference proceedings. His areas
of interests include logistics and supply chain management, industrial
management, quality management, etc.

1 Introduction

Over the past two decades, the importance of total quality management (TQM) has
considerably increased on both a practical and theoretical levels. A number of studies
have been evolved to develop a set of key practices of TQM implementation which vary
from one author to another, although the literature suggests top-management
commitment, supplier management, process management, employee involvement,
continuous improvement and innovation, and employee involvement as the some
important practices of TQM (Talib and Rahman, 2010; Talib et al., 2011; Sila and
Ebrahimpour, 2002; Kaynak, 2003; Najmi and Kehoe, 2000; Tarí and Sabater, 2004).
 Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques 107

According to literature, TQM is a multidimensional approach (Prajogo and Sohal, 2004,

2003; Prajogo and Mc Dermott, 2011). Thus, TQM is much more than identification of
core TQM practices, it also includes other important components of quality management
system, one of them is tools and techniques for quality improvement, i.e., the ways to
work within the company to reach the values (Hellsten and Klefsjö, 2000; Tarí and
Sabater, 2004). These tools and techniques consists of a number of activities performed
in a sequence and have statistical basis to support decision making or helps in facilitating
data analysis. In fact, the literature suggests that quality tools and techniques are key
components to support and develop a quality improvement process and performance
(Bunny and Dale, 1997; Stephens, 1997; Tarí and Sabater, 2004).
Though, past studies show that TQM is not always improve processes and
performance and in many times fails (Boje and Winsor, 1993; Spector and Beer,
1994; Jun et al., 2004; Ljungstrom and Klefsjö, 2002). The plausible reason for the
TQM to be unsuccessful is the absence of use of suitable quality management
methods such as tools and techniques for quality (Beardsell and Dale, 1999; Zhang, 2000;
Tarí and Sabater, 2004; Ahmed and Hassan, 2003). Based on these views and outcomes,
it is suggested that TQM programme may only have a positive influence on the
performance if the management focus on the state of application of number of TQM tools
and techniques in their company, i.e., a well equipped technical system must be
established (Sousa and Voss, 2002). Moreover, this technical system, including other
components of TQM, is critical for the survival and continuation of business (Zackrisson
et al., 1995).
Looking at the advantages of the TQM tools and techniques, and absence of an
empirical study on the usage of technical system in service industries, particularly in the
Indian service industry, the situation makes it necessary to carry out an empirical study
on this subject in order to verify the extent of usage of different tools and techniques for
TQM improvement and their performance in Indian service industry.
This study focuses on the state of usage of quality tools and techniques by conducting
a survey in select Indian service companies to find out the extent of usage of technical
systems and also to know whether any vital or a new technique which has been
developed recently and is not adopted or considered in the Indian service companies. In
other words, the aim is to understand the current status of implementation of quality tools
and techniques in service industries.
In view of this, the purpose of the present study is to address the following objective:

• To examine the extent to which quality tools and techniques are practised or used in
Indian service companies.

For this purpose, a sample of identified service companies was surveyed in India. The
results of this study are part of a wider research process, aimed at identifying,
implementing, and evaluating the TQM practices in select Indian service companies and
are presented in the forthcoming papers of this research.
This paper will be structured as follows. In the next section, a review is made of the
literature on tools and techniques for quality improvement. The following section reflects
the methodology used for this research paper; this is followed by presentation of results
and analysis. A number of discussion and conclusions will be suggested in the final
section including some managerial implications and scope for future research.
108 F. Talib et al.

2 Literature review

Various studies have been carried out by the QM/TQM researchers for the identification
of number of tools and techniques for quality improvement that are necessary for TQM
success (Tari, 2005; Dale and Mc Quater, 1998; Ishikawa, 1985; Imai, 1986; Dale, 1999;
Evans and Lindsay, 1999; Dean and Evans, 1994). Moreover, managers must know
which TQM tools and techniques they should consider for successful development of
TQM programme in their organisation. The following sub-section reports the studies on
relevance of quality tools and techniques undertaken by different researchers and
academicians.

2.1 Tools and techniques for quality improvement

The literature suggests that there is a difference between tools and techniques. As per
McQuater et al. (1995), a tool is a single device with some specific function and is
usually applied on its own, while a technique has a wider application and is composed of
a set of tools. Thus, Ishikawa (1985, 1990), McConnell (1989), Evans and Lindsay
(1999), Dale and Mc Quater (1998), and Dale (1999) presented a list of seven TQM
tools: flow chart, cause and effect diagrams, Pareto charts, histograms, brainstorming, run
charts and graphs, control charts, and scatter diagrams which are widely accepted and
used by the organisations. Deming (1982, 1986) emphasised the use of statistical
techniques for quality improvement and proposed a Plan-Do-Check-Act (P-D-C-A) cycle
to improve quality in organisation. Ishikawa (1976, 1985) underlined the utility of
training, the importance of cause and effect diagram for problem solving, and quality
circles as a way to achieve continuous improvement. Crosby (1979) recognised a zero-
defect philosophy, problem solving methodology, corrective action, quality measurement,
and many others as tools and techniques for quality improvement. Also, Imai (1986),
Dean and Evans (1994), Goetsch and Davis (1997), Dale (1999), and Evans and Lindsay
(1999) have offered a list of tools and techniques for quality improvement. Khanna
(2009) assessed the usage and status of 5-‘S’ and some other quality tools in Indian
organisations. He revealed that 5-‘S’ performance has a direct bearing on the
performance of TQM journey and has a positive correlation with TQM performance. The
other TQM tools he found to be most frequently used are: Pareto diagrams, run charts,
brainstorming, cause and effect diagrams, control charts, suggestion schemes, PDCA,
statistical process control (SPC), histogram, and Kaizen activities. Another study taken
by Tari (2005) underlined internal audits, graphs, SPC, and flow charts as highly
implemented QM tools and techniques in ISO 9000 certified firms. Fotopoulos and
Psomos (2009) examined the level of use of quality management tools and techniques as
well as employees’ training in ISO 9001:2000 certified Greek companies. They found
majority of companies use the easiest to understand and implement quality tools while
more complex quality tools and techniques are barely used. These findings were also
reported by Alsaleh (2007) in his survey of Saudi food industry. Finally, Psomas et al.
(2011) examined the core process management practices, quality tools and quality
improvement in ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies operating in Greece and
found that supporting quality tools have an indirect effect on quality improvement
through their significant correlation with the core process management practices.
 Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques 109

Table 1 Commonly used quality tools and techniques

S. no. Quality tool and technique

1. Brainstorming
2. Fishbone diagram/cause and effect diagram
3. Control charts
4. Pareto analysis/80/20 analysis
5. Flow chart
6. Kaizen activities
7. Quality circles
8. Benchmarking
9. Suggestion scheme
10. Internal audits
11. Self-assessment
12. SPC
13. 5-S activities
14. Business process reengineering (BPR)
15. Effective meetings

The above review still shows that there is a major gap in research in this area, because
there are few studies which have verified if the use of different techniques and tools
improves the TQM level and if it has an influence upon performance, specifically in
Indian service sector. Thus, considering that, the following research question has been
articulated to conduct further empirical research study:
Research question 1 (RQ1): To what extent the quality tools and techniques are practised
or implemented in the Indian service companies?
Answering the above question would help managers to realise the importance of
techniques and tools in order to improve quality. The hypotheses this paper formulated is
as follows:
H1 The applicability and status of quality tools and techniques is significantly high in
Indian service companies.
To carry out this objective, a research instrument was framed comprises of list of
15 quality tools and techniques identified from literature review (Table 1). Respondents
to the survey were asked to indicate the use or implementation of these 15 quality tools
and techniques in their company through multiple answer option by putting a tick or cross
in the corresponding box as applicable. The responses were analysed using descriptive
statistical analysis by finding frequency counts and percentage of respondents in each
category of quality tools and techniques, and were graphically presented in order to
examine the extent of use of each quality tools and techniques by the responding
company using SPSS 16.0 software (Coakes et al., 2006).
110 F. Talib et al.

3 Research methodology

Research methodology is very important as it can guide researchers on what steps needs
to be taken in order to accomplish the objectives of the research (Tsang and Antony,
2001; Antony et al., 2002). In order to accomplish the objective of this research study, a
questionnaire survey methodology was adopted and was carried out in select Indian
service companies. This section discusses research design, research instrument,
administration of instrument, sample, and data collection procedures used in the study.

3.1 Research design

The present research uses a descriptive cross-sectional study design. It is in line with the
studies on TQM performed by Salaheldin (2009), Duggirala et al. (2008) and Wardhani
et al. (2009). In addition to this, the study also employed the survey method, which
makes use of a research instrument. In this study, electronic mail (e-mail) survey method
was adopted as the means of data collection which is commonly used in similar kind of
research (Kureshi et al., 2010; Zu, 2009).

3.2 Research instrument

A self-administered instrument was designed in this research based on the works of
Khanna (2009), Al-Khalifa and Aspinwall (2000), Beardsell and Dale (1999), Sila and
Ebraimpour (2005), Tari (2005) and Fotopoulos and Psomos (2009). The instrument was
initially validated through a pilot survey before it was actually used for primary data
collection. The instrument developed was divided into two sections. The first section
comprises the demographic information of the respondents including profession, gender,
years of experience as well as the general background of the company and the second
section collects information on the usage and implementation of quality tools and
techniques in the company by listing 15 key quality tools and techniques. The instrument
used multiple answer option by putting a tick or cross in the corresponding box as
applicable.

3.3 Sampling method and data collection procedure

The target population of this study is the list of select Indian service companies published
by the i3 (i-cube, Information Infrastructure for Institutions), Centre for Monitoring
Indian Economy Private Limited, India (i3 CMIE, 2010). The list provides the names of
service companies, complete addresses, persons to contact. It also mentions telephone
number(s), e-mail addresses as well as the website of the company. The four service
industries mainly included in this study are healthcare, banking, hospitality (hotel and
tourism), and information and communication technology (ICT) which includes
telecommunication services, information technology enabled services (ITeS) and
computer software services. The reasons for choosing these four industries are their high
gross domestic product (GDP) share in Indian economy (about 56%) (i3 CMIE, 2010);
highly labour intensive industries and provides substantial employment (MoL&E, 2010);
and there ever increasing net annual income to the Indian service sector (i3 CMIE, 2010).
The list contains a total of 1,781 companies at the time of research period covering all the
four categories. The study was conducted between February–May, 2011.
 Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques 111

A stratified sampling method (a probability sampling technique) was used in this

study. This method was thought to be appropriate to collect sufficient information from
the total population to make statistical inferences. A minimum sample size was calculated
according to the GDP contribution of each service industry from the total contribution of
GDP in the service sector. The minimum sample size needed for this study comes out to
be 591. This sample was increased to 600 to reduce the probability of Type II error
(Burgess et al., 2006). This minimum sample size was stratified into four strata. The
sample size drawn from each stratum, i.e., healthcare, banking, hospitality, and ICT
industries based on proportionate stratified sampling technique were found to be 40, 67,
118, and 375 respectively. These samples were drawn using a simple random sample
approach.

3.4 Instrument administration

The sampling in this study was confined to specific types of people who can provide the
desired information. The target respondents for this study were top and middle level
administrators/managers who have sufficient level of experience and qualification and
therefore, they will be aware of the TQM practices followed in their respective service
companies. Each respondent received a cover letter and a survey instrument. They were
asked to respond within three weeks and then follow-up actions were taken for the non-
responses. Addressed to the top and middle level administrators/managers of the
companies, the survey instruments were e-mailed to 600 Indian service companies. After
several follow-ups and personal contacts, a total of 211 companies responded which are
approximately 35.1% of the sample size, were selected for the study, however, only 172
useable survey instruments were included for the data analysis as 39 instruments were
unusable, yielding a response rate of 28.6% which is well within the range of 85-300
cases as recommended by Kureshi et al. (2010), Spector (1992) and Hair et al. (1998).
The main reasons for this are: 33 respondents (84.6%) did not complete the instrument or
having the missing data and 6 instruments (15.4%) were undelivered.
To assess non-response bias in mail surveys, statistical difference tests between
earliest and latest responses is used (Kureshi et al., 2010; Krause and Scannel, 2002).
Using this method, first 10 respondents and the last 10 respondents were checked and
compared. This issue was validated by using t-tests with 95% confidence level (p ≥ 0.05)
among these two groups with respect to the usage of quality tools and techniques.
Analysis indicated that there were no significant differences between the early and late
respondents in term of usage of quality tools and techniques and type of company. Thus,
it concludes that there was no evidence of non-response bias in the data and it may not be
a problem in this study.

4 Results and analysis

4.1 Profile of the respondents

Table 2 depicts the profile of the respondents. The company variables consisted of
position of respondent, years of experience, gender, department/section, and type of
company. The respondents consisted of director/managing director/executive
director/CEO/general manager (4.7%), project manager/senior engineer manager/senior
112 F. Talib et al.

manager (18.6%), manager/technical manager/operations manager (22.1%), quality

manager/human resource manager/quality engineer/market manager/executive manager
(23.3%), CMO/medical superintendent/medical officer/physicians (9.9%), and others like
project architect, consultant; customer relation officer; service manager; assistant
manager (21.5%). The ICT companies dominate the sample size (48.8%). While the
remaining three industries, i.e., healthcare, banking, and hospitality contribute 9.9%,
21.5%, and 19.8% respectively in the sample. 64.5% of the respondents were having an
experience of more than five years and remaining (35.5%) having less than five years of
experience in their respective field. With regard to participant’s gender, there are 83.7%
male and 16.3% female respondents. It suggests that majority of the Indian service
companies are male dominated companies in their quality department. Finally, the
responses received from different departments/sections are as follows: 16 from quality
(9.3%), 35 from product and services (20.3%), 24 from customer relation (14.0%), 34
from marketing (19.8%), 19 from information management services (11.0%), and 44
from remaining others (25.6%).
Table 2 Profile of respondents in the service industry

Position/role of the respondent Frequency Percentage

Director/managing director/executive 8 4.7
director/CEO/general manager
Project manager/senior engineer manager/senior 32 18.6
manager
Manager/technical manager/operations manager 38 22.1
Quality manager/human resource manager/quality 40 23.3
engineer/market manager/executive manager
CMO/medical superintendent/medical officer/physicians 17 9.9
Others (like project architect, consultant; customer 37 21.5
relation officer; service manager; assistant manager)
Total n = 172 100
Years of experience Frequency Percentage
Less than five years 61 35.5
More than five years 111 64.5
Total n = 172 100
Gender Frequency Percentage
Male 144 83.7
Female 28 16.3
Total n = 172 100
Department/section Frequency Percentage
Quality 16 9.3
Product and services 35 20.3
Customer relation 24 14.0
Marketing 34 19.8
Information management services 19 11.0
Others 44 25.6
Total n = 172 100
 Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques 113

Table 2 Profile of respondents in the service industry (continued)

Type of company Frequency Percentage

Healthcare 17 9.9
Banking 37 21.5
Hospitality (tourism and hotels) 34 19.8
ICT(Including ITeS and computer software services) 84 48.8
Total n = 172 100

4.2 Usage of quality tools and techniques across Indian service companies

The usage of various quality tools by the responding companies have been shown in
Figure 1 and Table 3. From the table and figure, it is observed that in Indian
service sector, effective meetings, internal audits, flow charts, control charts,
brainstorming, suggestion scheme, and self-assessment are very popular and are being
used for solving quality related problems, which are easier to implement and simple to
use. On the other hand, quality tools like Kaizen activities; Pareto analysis, 5-’S’
activities, Six Sigma, design of experiments (DOE), BPR, cause and effect diagram,
quality circles, SPC, and Benchmarking are barely in use, which are rather more
complex quality tools and techniques. These results were also reported by Fotopoulos and
Psomos (2009) and Alsaleh (2007). These techniques are also very essential for
continuous improvement and for full TQM implementation as they create the culture
within which the quality tools and techniques can work and can improve quality and
competitiveness. The Indian service companies must develop and adopt these tools and
techniques in order to progress towards TQM. According to Van der Wiele et al. (2001),
‘one way of using the quality system to facilitate change is by working on improvement
activities’. Such improvement activities can be done by adopting these quality tools and
techniques which could help managers to implement the critical practices of TQM in the
company.
From Figure1, it has been observed that the most popular and highly implemented
quality tools among the Indian service companies are effective meetings, control
charts, flow charts, and internal audits as 60% to 80% of the responding companies are
using only these four tools to solve their quality related problems. Further, 50% to 60%,
40% to 50%, 30% to 40%, 20% to 30%, 10% to 20%, and less than 10% of the
responding companies are using 7, 10, 12, 14, 15, and 16 quality tools respectively
(see Table 3). However, the least implemented quality tool is Kaizen activities,
which is being used in less than 10% of the Indian service companies and also
5-’S’activities (18.6%), which is evident from Figure 1 and is a cause of concern.
Since, these tools being considered as the important pillars of TQM implementation
approach as it creates continuous improvement in all company functions at all level and
improving work environment (Imai, 1986). Using these vital tools, the Japanese clearly
outwitted, outsmarted, and outsold the other countries in different sectors (Grant et al.,
1995).
To be globally competitive, it is very important that Indian service sector
must vigorously focus for the implementation of Kaizen activities and 5-’S’ activities
114 F. Talib et al.

along with other tools like Six Sigma. BPR, and Pareto analysis. Therefore,
Indian service managers should better focus on these less used quality tools and
techniques, and understand clearly as to what Kaizen activities, 5-’S’ activities, Six
Sigma, BPR, and Pareto analysis really mean and implement accordingly to improve
their overall business performance while enhance the quality performance
simultaneously.

Table 3 Usage of quality tools and techniques in Indian service companies

Number of quality tool

Percentage
Usage of quality tools and techniques used by the respondent
respondents
company
70–80 Effective meetings 1
60–70 Control charts; flow charts; internal audits; 4
effective meetings
50–60 Self-assessment; suggestion scheme; 7
brainstorming; control charts; flow charts;
internal audits; effective meetings
40–50 SPC; quality circles; benchmarking; self- 10
assessment; suggestion scheme; brainstorming;
control charts; flow charts; internal audits;
effective meetings
30–40 BPR; cause and effect diagram; SPC; quality 12
circles; benchmarking; self-assessment;
suggestion scheme; brainstorming; control
charts; flow charts; internal audits; effective
meetings
20–30 Pareto analysis; others (like: DOE; FMEA, 14
why-why analysis; Six Sigma, CMMi; PDCA);
BPR; cause and effect diagram; SPC; quality
circles; benchmarking; self-assessment;
suggestion scheme; brainstorming; control
charts; flow charts; internal audits; effective
meetings
10–20 5-S activities; Pareto analysis; others (like: 15
DOE; FMEA, why-why analysis; Six Sigma,
CMMi; PDCA); BPR; cause and effect diagram;
SPC; quality circles; benchmarking; self-
assessment; suggestion scheme; brainstorming;
control charts; flow charts; internal audits;
effective meetings
Less than 10 Kaizen activities; 5-S activities; Pareto analysis; 16
others (like: DOE; FMEA, why-why analysis;
Six Sigma, CMMi; PDCA); BPR; cause and
effect diagram; SPC; quality circles;
benchmarking; self-assessment; suggestion
scheme; brainstorming; control charts; flow
charts; internal audits; effective meetings
 Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques 115

Figure 1 Overall usage of quality tools and techniques in Indian service companies

Kaizen Activities 8.1

5-S Activities 18.6

Pareto Analysis/80/20 Analysis 25

Others(DOE, PDCA, FMEA,Why-Why Analysis, Six Sigma, CMMi etc ) 25.6

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) 33.7

Fishbone Diagram/Cause and Effect Diagram 34.3

Statistical Process Control (SPC) 41.9

Quality Circles 45.9

Benchmarking 46.5

Self-assessment 54.7

Suggestion Scheme 54.7

Brainstorming 55.2

Control Charts 61.6

Flow Chart 62.2

Internal Audits 69.8

Effective Meetings 78.5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Percentage of Respondents

5 Discussion and conclusions

This paper successfully accomplishes the research objective of the study and examined
the current status of usage of quality tools and techniques in Indian service companies.
Thus, from the above results and analysis regarding the usage of quality tools and
techniques in Indian service companies, it is concluded that Indian service companies
emphasise 4–7 quality tools and techniques like effective meetings (78.5%), internal
audits (69.8%), flow chart (62.2%), control charts (61.6%), brainstorming (55.2%),
suggestion scheme (54.7%), and self-assessment (54.7%) as the most important, and
implement them frequently in their companies while the quality tools like Kaizen
activities (8.14%), 5-’S’ activities (18.6%), Pareto analysis (25.0%), BPR (33.7%), and
Six Sigma (25.6%) are often neglected and barely used in Indian service companies.
Therefore, it is concluded that the applicability and status of quality tools and techniques
is not significantly high in Indian service companies. Hence, the hypothesis H1 is
partially supported.
116 F. Talib et al.

Based on the results of the present study, it can be further concluded that Indian
service companies which shares a large part of India’s GDP (about 58%) (CSO, 2010)
and are relatively large in size, have not responded to modern market demands in terms
of adoption of advanced quality tools and techniques in their quality management system.
Although, majority of the service companies are implementing or already have
implemented some form of quality management systems like ISO 9000 and other quality
certification systems, but their was a lack of enthusiasm found to participate in the
processes of obtaining a quality award and implementing quality excellence business
models. The future Indian service companies should be encouraged to implement such
quality systems and models, and adopt TQM principles and practices that may prove to
be significantly effect their performance.
Moreover, the Indian service companies showed significant weakness in the
application of most quality tools and techniques. Tools that are considered easy to
understand and implement are included in everyday practice in majority of service
companies. However, quality tools and techniques, not necessarily very demanding,
requires knowledge, skills, training and experience, are rarely used by the companies
under study. He results of the study presented in this paper regarding the frequent use of
the simple quality tools and techniques as opposed to the use of the advanced ones is also
in line with the findings of Sousa et al. (2005), Lagrosen and Lagrosen (2005) and
Fotopoulos and Psomos (2009).
Nevertheless, it may be concluded that Indian service companies are showing
enthusiasm to develop quality culture and are more likely to use advanced quality tools
and techniques to a greater extent provided that quality training should be provided for
their managers and employees as per the need of the company.
From the above discussion of the results and suggestions of the present study, it is
concluded that the greater use of quality tools and techniques requires dome strong and
active actions by the management to move beyond quality system certification towards
TQM philosophy. It seems that even by adopting advance quality tools and techniques is
not enough to stimulate companies to regularly monitor and improve their products,
processes, and services unless a change in quality culture, training and educating the
employees, conducting quality awareness programme, continuous improvement and
innovation culture and above all customer orientation about their needs and expectations
are studied and implemented across the company. Incorporating all these activities and
practices in the company, quality will be assured at the earliest possible stage.
The adoption of above philosophy by the service companies will help to bridge the
gap between the application of even more advance quality tools and techniques than
earlier and hence, improvement in the quality and enhance performance.

5.1 Managerial implications and future research

From a practical point of view, the results of this paper provide Indian service managers
and practitioners with a practical understanding of these tools and techniques for quality
improvement. Managers should understand that the quality of a product does not only
depend on the quality of the process, but also on the quality of management system like
adoption of key quality tools and techniques. Management should provide adequate
resources and training for improvement actions for continuous improvement of product,
process, and service quality to be successful. Further, the advantages of application of the
basic tools should also be realised by the practicing managers. Well-designed training
 Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and techniques 117

and development programme should be provided to all the members of the company to
understand the importance of the application of basic and advanced tools and techniques
so that they may be able to apply them.
Furthermore, there is a need to investigate the current status of usage of quality tools
and techniques covering other industries which has not been the part of this study and are
left out. Also, further in-depth investigation is needed to explore the relationship between
application of quality tools and techniques and company’s performance.

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