Abstract
Purpose
Ho and Osada state that 5 “S” is the foundation for implementing total quality management (TQM) philosophy and also emphasize that 5 “S” is the primary driver for the success of TQM in any organization. Since the competitiveness of India has been ranked comparatively low worldwide, it shows that Indian organizations may be weak in implementing TQM. The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of TQM, quality tools and 5 “S” in Indian organizations and to study their relationship among three categories of organizations, i.e. “Large”, “Medium” and “Small”.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents the status of 5 “S”, quality tools and TQM in Indian organizations based on 62 organizations.
Findings
The paper reveals that 5 “S” performance has a direct bearing on the performance of TQM journey. There is a positive correlation among 5 “S” index, usage of quality tools and TQM index. The high 5 “S” index in “Large” category of organization has resulted in high‐TQM index in comparision to “Medium” and “Small” organizations. The weakest link is “Small” category, which has a direct bearing on the overall performance of TQM.
Research limitations/implications
The investigation and research findings are still exploratory. Future research can focus and study the correlation among 5 “S”, quality tools, and TQM sector wise. Broadly based and larger sample size would provide better picture of 5 “S”, usage of quality tools and TQM status.
Originality/value
The study has been able to compute 5 “S”, usage of quality tools and TQM index among the three category of organizations and have been able to establish the correlation among 5 “S”, TQM and quality tools. The study has been able to identify that organizations with high‐5 “S” index tend to use high number of quality tools and have high‐TQM index.