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Investigates the state of benchmarking in the manufacturing and service sectors of Singapore. Our aim is to understand the state of benchmarking in Singapore as well as the expectations and motivation of non‐benchmarking companies. Our approach to the adoption of benchmarking is to view it as a major organisational change. We seek to understand the many dimensions of the transformation process. In addition, we examine the role of factors such as motivation, objectives, driving force, top management’s commitment, preconditions, process, company culture, employee participation, presence of pitfalls, and the potential benefits in determining the success of a benchmarking project. We identify driving forces, preconditions and effectiveness of implementation as the major facilitators of benchmarking. Also, we establish the importance of these facilitators towards the achievement of benefits and success of benchmarking. Moreover, the study emphasises the importance of preconditions and effectiveness of implementation for the success and benefits of benchmarking.

This paper focuses on gaining insight into the impact of TQM on the business performance of the service sector of the economy. The study yields clear evidence that TQM implementation improved business performance in the service sector of Singapore. Success of TQM implementations appears to be attributable more to the rigor of its implementation rather than the duration. The study finds that while accrued benefits can be attributed to some of the tools of TQM, such as, customer focus and quality improvement rewards, the key to the success of TQM lies in its intangible and behavioral features such as top management support, employee empowerment and employee involvement.

Total quality management (TQM) is widely accepted as a means of obtaining and sustaining competitive edge. This study finds support for the proposition that TQM implementation correlates with quality performance. Behavioral factors (role of top management leadership, customer focus, human resource focus, and quality focus) as well as TQM tools and techniques (corporate planning, process focus, and information and analysis) contribute to the successful implementation of TQM. Also, the study finds that the size of the company (big or small), the company’s adoption of TQM, and the duration of a company’s experience with TQM affect the rigor of implementation and the resulting level of quality performance. However, the nature of the company (manufacturing or service) does not seem to have a significant effect on the rigor of quality management implementation and level of quality performance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated conceptual framework of total quality management and corporate social responsibility.

This study is based on stakeholder theory, which stresses the satisfaction of all stakeholders. Therefore, companies generate profit for their shareholders by producing high quality products and services to emphasize human dignity and to satisfy their employees without harming people and the natural environment.

The results of the study suggest an integrated conceptual framework by identifying the critical factors that are parallel between quality management and social responsibility to satisfy key stakeholders’ demands.

This study is conceptual in nature, and empirical research is needed to identify the critical factors that promote the application of TQM and CSR practices, which are limited.

The proposed conceptual framework may facilitate the management of an organization to evaluate its quality and social programs and will highlight problem areas that can be improved. This study contributes to the literature on TQM and CSR and captures the important factors for effective TQM and CSR practices. The conceptual framework will help researchers and firms to recognize TQM and CSR initiatives and establish a strengthened relationship between corporate strategy and social conditions.

Previous studies have been conducted separately in the areas of TQM and CSR, and there are still not sufficient number of studies to simultaneously integrate quality management and social responsibility. Thus, there is a critical research gap, which raises the question of how the integration of TQM and CSR practices can be developed. There is a need to recognize the mechanism through which the specific element of CSR would be included as an implicit and/or explicit aspect or whether it should be addressed along with TQM. Therefore, this study proposes an integrated conceptual framework that can be applied to the broader issues of responsibility rather than just quality.

This paper explores and interprets the linkage between total quality management (TQM) practices and organizational performance measures for improving the healthcare firms’ performance. Indian healthcare firms are aware of TQM practices and their benefits, but the awareness level varies among the firms and staff. The study looks into the effectiveness of quality awareness to meet quality performance in Indian hospitals.

A questionnaire based on previous research was circulated among the managers and medical staff. The model linking TQM and organizational performance is analyzed with structural equation modelling and confirmed the hypotheses stated. Interpretations to improve hospital performance are made.

The study identified ten relevant TQM factors and confirmed their importance towards the improved organizational performance of Indian hospitals. Top management initiative, continuous process improvement and team work are the most contributing TQM factors. Differences in the awareness levels by the management staff and medical staff are attributed. The managers and medical staff are aware of the benefits of TQM towards firm performance, but it is to be improved further.

Cross-validation and interpretation are affected due to the limited sample size. Longitudinal study is recommended to explore the individual hospital as specific cases. Larger sample size is suggested as an extended work to overcome the demographic and infrastructural limitations of the firms included.

The management is more interested in TQM, but there is lack of awareness among the staff. The quality awareness and customer focus by medical staff are the most weakly loaded factors, and the weaknesses can be remedied by the lead role by the hospital management in providing proper training and thereby improving the attitude of the medical staff.

Effectiveness of hospital operations is highly dependent on customer focus. Properly communicated, committed and trained staff with good-quality awareness can better implement TQM and thereby improve hospital performance. Lead role by the management is very important, and the paper lists ways to attain these outcomes.

Very little is reported from the Indian healthcare sector linking TQM and outcome performance. The quality awareness, customer focus, communication and learning by the medical staff are to be improved, and the paper suggests ways to link TQM more effectively to improve the performance in hospitals. These findings may be useful to the managers, medical staff and researchers in healthcare to bring better results.

This paper examines the effect of green creativity (GC) on the business sustainability (BS) of large manufacturing firms (LMFs) in Malaysia and investigates the mediating effect of total quality management (TQM) on this relationship.

A quantitative approach was adopted, using a sample of 206 LMFs; the formulated hypotheses were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings revealed a significant positive effect of GC on the TQM and BS of LMFs and a significant positive effect of TQM on their BS. TQM also has a full mediating effect on the relationship between GC and BS.

One of the limitations of this study is its focus on Malaysian LMFs. It nevertheless contributes to the literature by extending knowledge concerning their TQM, GC and multi-faceted perspectives. This is largely ignored in literature and, as such, the study paves the way for additional research.

The findings of this study may be used as guidelines for CEOs, particularly on the way TQM and GC can be developed for enhanced BS, in the context of South Asian countries.

This study is the first to test the influence of GC on Malaysian LMFs’ BS and the first worldwide to investigate the mediating effect of TQM on their GC-BS relationship.

The purpose of this study is for solving many issues in production that includes processing of complex-shaped profile, machining of high-strength materials, good surface finish with high-level precision and minimization of waste. Among the various advanced machining processes, abrasive jet machining (AJM) is one of the non-traditional machining techniques used for various applications such as polishing, deburring and hole making. Hence, an overview of the investigations done on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GRFP) composites becomes important.

Discussion on various approaches to AJM, the effect of process parameters on the glass fiber and carbon fiber polymeric composites are presented. Kerf characteristics, surface roughness and various nozzle design were also discussed.

It was observed that abrasive jet pressure, stand-off distance, traverse rate, abrasive size, nozzle diameter, angle of attack are the significant process parameters which affect the machining time, material removal rate, top kerf, bottom kerf and kerf angle. When the particle size is maximum, the increased kinetic energy of the particle improves the penetration depth on the CFRP surface. As the abrasive jet pressure is increased, the cutting process is enabled without severe jet deflection which in turn minimizes the waviness pattern, resulting in a decrease of the surface roughness.

The review is limited to glass fiber and carbon fiber polymeric composites.

In many applications, the use of composite has gained wide acceptance. Hence, machining of the composite need for the study also has gained wide acceptance.

The usage of composites reduces the usage of very costly materials of high density. The cost of the material also comes down.

This paper is a comprehensive review of machining composite with abrasive jet. The paper covers in detail about machining of only GFRP and CFRP composites with various nozzle designs, unlike many studies which has focused widely on general AJM of various materials.

The purpose of this study is to explore the trends in publications made to International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management (IJQRM) for time period ranging from 2002–2022. In this study authors performed bibliometric analysis on the publications extracted from Scopus database using citations, authors, keywords and bibliographic coupling methods. The analysis helped authors highlighting the achievements of the journal towards the development of field of “quality” and “reliability” management and explore future avenues to be researched upon in the domain.

In this paper outputs derived through VoS viewer and bibliographic data of Scopus were used to examine various tabular and pictorial aspects of the authors, sources, documents, countries and keywords analysis.

The analysis results revealed that International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management (IJQRM) has got incredible 33,344 citations since 2002 with average citation count per document at 22.69. Sohal A.S. from Monash University, Australia has topped the list of most influential authors in terms of citations per document (107.20 citations/doc) published with IJQRM. However, Antony J. with massive 39 publications in total with 2074 citations is the most prominent contributor for the journal. The author has gained 6% of the total journal citations. The contributions from India, United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), Iran, Australia, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Sweden, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are more noteworthy.

The study has implications for future researchers and journal editorial team to explore possibilities in tapping various uncovered and upcoming research areas related to the scope of journal. The findings of the study may prompt research initiatives linked to diverse fields in sync with changes happening across globe such as: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Data Science etc.

The study is an attempt to investigate the long standing heritage offered by IJQRM to the world of quality and reliability management. The authors tried to unearth some hidden facts about the IJQRM and attempted to showcase the past and explore future directions to the researchers and editorial team.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the implementation of a total quality management (TQM) approach positively affects the financial performance of European companies. This paper tests whether North American results showing the relative out‐performance of companies that have successfully implemented TQM approaches are replicated in Europe.

This research uses the same methodology as the seminal work of Hendricks and Singhal. The winning of a Quality Award is used as a proxy for the sound implementation of TQM. Publicly available share price and accounting data is analysed over a ten year period. Changes in the performance of award winning companies relative to non‐award winning companies are tested using a matched‐pair comparison approach.

The results confirm that, despite evident and marked differences in company structures and institutional environments between North America and Europe, stronger performance is again achieved by the TQM‐oriented award winning companies.

There is little empirical research establishing the link between TQM and improved financial performance within Europe, with most existing studies presenting findings only based on perception data. The findings presented in this paper close some of the limitations of previous European studies and use rigorous research methods to estimate the financial and business impact of TQM on company performance in Europe. Furthermore, extending Hendricks and Singhal's seminal study to include Europe, has been an objective of those in the European TQM practitioner community ever since the early results were published.

Micro-enterprises have a vital role in the development of a nation by creating employment, encouraging entrepreneurship, balancing social income and educating the workforce. Yet, micro-enterprises face significant operational challenges such as low productivity, high production costs and long changeover times. These challenges are often overlooked by researchers and practitioners but have a drastic impact on micro-enterprises' operational performance. With over 95% of the economy consisting of micro-enterprises, it is vital to improve operational performance and competitiveness of the micro-enterprises.

Considering the data availability and practical challenges of gathering data from micro-enterprises, an action research methodology was selected as a suitable research method. Following the initial diagnostic visits, planned interventions were prepared and results were observed to gather data and draw conclusions.

Findings suggest that commonly adapted performance improvement initiatives by large enterprises cannot be directly applied in micro-enterprises to enhance operational performance. Micro-enterprises lack the critical resources and company culture to easily adapt these initiatives. On the other hand, when these performance improvement initiatives are filtered according to specific needs of micro-enterprises, continuous improvement initiatives were often found to be effective in improving operational performance. Specifically, 5S, single-minute exchange of dies (SMED), suggestion schemes, layout improvements, management coaching, visual management, empowerment were found to be useful and suitable to address command and control culture, low productivity, unorganised workspace, undelegated authority, low skilled employees and unwillingness to take responsibility problems.

Further research is required to investigate the specific factors that affect the adaptation of continuous improvement initiatives such as culture and industry type.

This research extends and contributes the current literature on continuous improvement initiatives by revealing how performance improvement initiatives need to be filtered according to the specific needs of micro-enterprises, and how these initiatives can be used to address specific problems to improve operational efficiency. It provides a conceptual framework to guide the decision-making process on operational performance improvement in micro-enterprises.