Synergising the effects of transfusion of TQM and TPM for Indian manufacturing industries: a tactical TQM-TPM model

Abstract

Indian manufacturing industry has witnessed irrepressible competition in the recent times in terms of low costs, improved quality and diverse products with superior performance. Indian entrepreneurs have now understood that to meet the challenges posed by the competitive environment, the manufacturing organisations must infuse quality and maintenance improvement initiatives in all aspects of their processes. Total quality management (TQM) and total productive maintenance (TPM), are such popular initiatives employed by the manufacturing organisations in synergy as organisational performance improvement techniques. The objective of this research is to investigate the status of maintenance and quality improvement initiatives in Indian manufacturing organisations and suggesting a tactical TQM-TPM model, considering the vast literature review of TQM and TPM quality drives, the outcomes of the 'TQM-TPM questionnaire' survey and case studies. The TQM-TPM model presented is a structured set of strategies that are integrated to help implement TQM and TPM successfully and can help Indian entrepreneurs avoid the common problems and pitfalls during their implementation.