STUDY OF SELECT ISSUES OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN INDIAN FMCGs INDUSTRY

Abstract

The 21st century seems to have practically adopted performance measurement as a tool for continuous improvement; hence a productive change in the world of business is quite noticeable. Measuring performance continuously has become essential for masses of organizations as this is the only way that organizations can compete with global challenges. Performance measurement is often confused with performance management and mostly misunderstood as synonyms. Performance measurement is a solo activity that is employed to access performance for a predetermined goal on a set of parameters. As opposed to this, performance management is an integrated activity that aims to nurture and institutionalize performance management as a fundamental system of an organization. In this parlance, performance measurement is considered as one of the tools that are used in measuring the actual performance of the system to achieve the goal. Similarly, performance management is viewed as an activity of goal setting and monitoring the achievement of goals. Performance management in this sense is viewed as another form of management by objectives (MBO). In De-facto, management by objectives is one of the important features of performance management. The performance of an organizational system is the aggregate output of performance of its subsystems, which are directly linked with the goal of the organization. The strategies of the organization are interpreted as Systems of the System (SoS) viz Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-In-Time Management (JIT), Lean Manufacturing (LM), Logistics Management, assembly system, facility management, Supply Chain Management (SCM) system etc. This strategy of a subsystem is dynamic in nature and acts to achieve their individual goal with enablers and drivers called critical success factors (CSFs) which ultimately converges with the organizational goal. The name/title or levels of these CSFs may appear the same, but their approach differs from one other as per the system requirement. In recent decades, Total Quality Management (TQM) has become the approach

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of confidence for those organizations who have still been struggling to implement it without any barrier in their organizational system. Moreover, it is a benchmark level of dominance for those organizations who are using it as a tool in their various continuous improvement programs such as lean production, six-sigma approach, Just-in-Time manufacturing and Total Productivity Management (TPM). Thereby, the TQM implementation seems to be determined to hone their performance level so as to attain a benchmark that would lead them to get a sustainable status. The critical success factors (CSFs) certainly in this context have been playing a pivotal role. They have been contributing to making the industries more competitive and sustainable by introducing new technologies and bringing forth new perspectives into the organization. It is a well-known fact that an organization’s performance is largely determined by its employees. A TQM aware employee understands and manages quality in their daily activities. These factors lead a successful company to consistently measure and improve its quality-related functions. At present, the FMCGs industries operate on the basis of consumer demand for variety and change which leads to continuous improvement with innovative products. Simultaneously customer wants that they must take for granted that the items and services they consume should work well as soon as they purchase them. There are also residual losses when customers abandon products and brands for quality reasons. To achieve success with a total quality management program or any other improvement methodology, managers must understand the quality goals for their product or company. FMCGs consumers choose their daily need products according to their hygienic compatibility, taste and thus change their purchasing decisions according to their lifestyle. However, back here in developing countries such as India, many industries do not bother with the performance measurement of their subsystems or strategies. Corporations do not share the correct information about the performance of their

business nor do they have the facility to measure the impact of implemented strate- x

gies. TQM performance heavily depends on how well the TQM system is designed for

the organization. In other words, it is quite difficult to improve overall TQM perfor- mance if decisions criteria (attributes, i.e critical success factors) are not embedded

or considered at the phase of TQM system design. The study of the connection between the CSFs and total quality management (TQM) is essential for effective TQM. Many authors suggest that the CSFs for any objective should be SMART

and an acronym for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Stat- ing or defining CSFs are top management’s responsibility and the quality of their

statement reflects the quality of their strategic planning. Many FMCGs industries are successful and they achieve their success because of their effective TQM system design and management of quality-related activities. This information paves the way for the present thesis which is aimed to examine

different issues related to TQM performance measurement in the Indian FMCGs in- dustry. To overcome this problem, in this study, barriers have been decided on the

basis of the ranking of the CSFs. Firstly, a set of questionnaires has been developed to identify the issues related to TQM performance measurement practices in Indian

FMCGs industries. Then, the issues related to the TQM performance in the indus- try have been identified through survey. Then, hypotheses concerning have been

formulated and tested. Moreover, a case study has been performed and analyzed using the SAP-LAP framework in a particular FMCG company domain. In the last phase, a Knowledge-Based Performance Measurement (KBPM) framework has been developed to rank the CSFs of TQM system using fuzzy-logic approach to evaluate the effectiveness. From the results, it has been revealed that the performance of

TQM can be improved remarkably if it applies properly. Moreover, the author be- lieves that the outcome of this thesis could be used for reference analysis to improve

the effectiveness of existing TQM practices in the FMCG industries.