Application of interpretive structural modelling for analysing barriers to total quality management practices implementation in the automotive sector

In the recent era of globalisation and competitive scenario, quality plays a vital role in ensuring customer satisfaction. Total quality management (TQM) involves the implementation of appropriate tools/techniques to provide products and services to customers with best quality. In order to ensure the success of TQM practices in a modern automotive component manufacturing scenario, barriers and their mutual interactions need to be systematically analysed to enable practicing managers for effective deployment. In this context, this study depicts an interpretive structural modelling (ISM)-based approach to understand the mutual influence of TQM barriers. A total of 21 barriers have been identified for TQM practices and ISM model has been developed. The barriers are grouped under four categories (dependent, independent, autonomous and linkage) based on MICMAC analysis. The conduct of the study enabled the decision-makers to systematically analyse the influential barriers for effective deployment of TQM concepts in modern automotive component manufacturing, which is one of the rapidly growing sectors in the Indian scenario.