Identifying and ranking critical success factors for implementation of total quality management in the Indian manufacturing industry using TOPSIS

The purpose of this paper is to review critical success factors (CSFs) of total quality management (TQM), and to rank these in the Indian manufacturing industry.

To rank the CSFs, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used. The data were collected using questionnaires as the research instrument.

Process management, top management leadership and customer focus are the top three factors for implementation of TQM in the manufacturing industry in India. Quality citizenship is a relatively low‐ranked factor.

The findings will be useful in successful implementation of TQM in developing countries like India. Further research may be carried out into the CSFs in different national contexts.

The paper is the first to make use of TOPSIS approach to rank the CSFs of TQM.