Total quality management in small and medium enterprises: An overview in Indian context

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to carry out the study on Total quality Management (TQM) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and understand the key issues involved in the implementation of TQM in Indian context. The aim of paper is to identify the critical success factors (CSF) through quality award model for effective implementation of TQM. Study found that very few TQM implementation model are developed for SMEs and no large scale empirical research has been systematically conducted dealing with TQM implementation in Indian manufacturing SMEs. It is found that the investigation for to bridge this gap is truly needed by developing the TQM model especially for SMEs. The limitations identified for this paper are (First) this study was limited only to SMEs of the manufacturing industries in Indian context. This cross sectional study was based on the quality award model and suitable to achieve the expected quality level of an organization for continuous improvement. This paper can increase the awareness of the significance of TQM strategy, which could help managers of SMEs to have a better understanding of the benefits of implementing TQM and therefore enable patient satisfaction within their organizations.