PERCEPTIONS OF SMEs TOWARDS THE KEY ELEMENTS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (Pages 66-74) by Mr. D. Selvaraj* and Dr. S.Rosita** in THE INTERNATIONAL MANAGER / ISSN: 2348-9413 (Online); 2348-9405 (Print)

Total Quality Management is a widely used approach for various reasons. In addition to the ISO 9001 certification TQM is considered to be the next step towards the journey of zero defects. The race of quality management is initiated by the large scale companies with professional approach and with the available funds and infrastructure to meet with the challenges of present competitive environment. However the SMEs also in order to grab the opportunities prevailing and to increase the life span of their organizations are joining the band wagon of Quality as a strategy. There are several key elements of TQM. The awareness about these different elements of TQM is however a question mark. This research paper is indicating with a survey of a small sample of SMEs about the level of awareness and the importance they feel about the elements of TQM. It was observed that very few SMEs were inclined to go beyond ISO9001. However those SMEs which were following TQM principles were more or less aware about the prompted key elements. Further it was found that there is maximum awareness about the continuous improvement. Process management, House Keeping and Quality chain (Customer – Supplier relationship) are also considered to be important ones for the success of TQM implementation. These were followed by Team working & Synergy, Employee Empowerment, Bench Marking, Creativity & Innovation. Kaizen seems to be the element which SMEs are not much aware about.Total Quality Management is a widely used approach for various reasons. In addition to the ISO 9001 certification TQM is considered to be the next step towards the journey of zero defects. The race of quality management is initiated by the large scale companies with professional approach and with the available funds and infrastructure to meet with the challenges of present competitive environment. However the SMEs also in order to grab the opportunities prevailing and to increase the life span of their organizations are joining the band wagon of Quality as a strategy. There are several key elements of TQM. The awareness about these different elements of TQM is however a question mark. This research paper is indicating with a survey of a small sample of SMEs about the level of awareness and the importance they feel about the elements of TQM. It was observed that very few SMEs were inclined to go beyond ISO9001. However those SMEs which were following TQM principles were more or less aware about the prompted key elements. Further it was found that there is maximum awareness about the continuous improvement. Process management, House Keeping and Quality chain (Customer – Supplier relationship) are also considered to be important ones for the success of TQM implementation. These were followed by Team working & Synergy, Employee Empowerment, Bench Marking, Creativity & Innovation. Kaizen seems to be the element which SMEs are not much aware about.Keywords: TQM, ISO9001, SMEs, Process Management, Quality Chain, Synergy, Bench Marking.