The first paper, ?Assessment of Total Quality Management Implementation in Indian Service Industries?, by Faisal Talib and Mohd. Nishat Faisal, examines the extent to which TQM practices have been implemented in Indian service industries. Using a self-structured instrument, the authors have collected data from four different service industries, viz., healthcare, banking, hospitality and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) targeting the top and middle managers in Indian service industries. The paper uses one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to examine the extent of TQM implementation in Indian service industries. The results reveal that six TQM practices, i.e., top-management commitment, customer focus, process management, quality systems, teamwork, and communication, are effectively implemented across the Indian service industries, suggesting that no significant difference is found in their implementation. However, the results highlight 11 practices which are partially implemented having significant observed difference in their implementation. The contribution of the paper lies in its proposed framework, which can help Indian service managers and practitioners make the process of TQM implementation effective by proper implementation of the identified set of TQM practices to gain maximum benefits and advantages of the TQM program.

The second paper, ?Lean Fails a Lot, Even Today ? Are Organizations Taking Care of All Success Factors to Implement Lean??, by A S M Touhidul Islam, indicates that success of lean implementation can bring tremendous benefits to any organization; however, it cautions that chance of failure remains very high. Aimed at successful lean implementation, this paper investigates the success factors for lean implementation comprehensively analyzing the available extant literature over the past 20 years. Out of the 36 identified exhaustive factors, influencing lean implementation, the paper highlights nine factors as the potentially high impacting ones with specific emphasis and focus towards concluding that ?leadership from top management?, ?organizational culture?, ?effective communication?, and ?knowledge and mindset? are the top factors for successful lean implementation. The key contribution of this research lies in a dependable and up-to-date list of all success factors which may be used as a guidance tool for industry practitioners and managers for prioritizing lean enhancing factors across contexts, thereby facilitating organizations to prepare well for successful and sustainable implementation of lean.

The last paper, ?Reduction of Process Time in Sewing Section of Garment Industry?, by Vanishree Beloor, Jayanth S Shekar and Prasad Prabhakar Hegde, draws attention to the scenario which highlights that the demand for higher value at lower price is increasing, and to survive, the apparel manufacturers need to improve their operations and reduce their lead time. The paper addresses an overarching objective which aims at reducing the standard time following Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST). Using data, collected for two styles over a period of three months, the paper determines the standard time taken to produce a pant using MOST. Based on the data, the paper calculates line efficiency and production capacity. This helps in identifying the bottlenecks in the production line. A comparison of the results of existing technique and MOST shows that there is reduction in the standard time of sewing section.