Prioritising the practices of total quality management: An analytic hierarchy process analysis for the service industries

Abstract

Total quality management (TQM) is a major business strategy which employs a set of principles and practices to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the service industry. This research aims to categorise TQM practices and examine its relative importance for better implementation in service industries. The relative importance and ranking of TQM practices in service industries was done through a literature review, discussion with experts, and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach. In all, 17 TQM practices were identified and further divided into three factor categories. Then their prioritisation was done using AHP approach to assign the relative importance of these 17 TQM practices in service industries. The results will help service industry managers to work upon them based on their relative importance to improve their TQM performance. Finally, limitations, managerial implications, and scope of future study are presented at the end.

Keywords:

• total quality management (TQM)
• TQM practices
• analytic hierarchy process (AHP)
• service industries
• prioritisation
• top-management commitment