The global marketplace and domestic and international competition have made organizations around the world realize that their survival depends on high quality. Total Quality Management (TQM) has spread its wings every sphere of the global corporate world and Indian companies are no exception. Post-globalization, top Indian firms, especially in the manufacturing sector, started adopting strategies to not only be competitive globally but also reduce their defect rates dramatically. The impact of this quality drive was also on the auto component industry due to the influx of global auto players such as Ford, Hyundai and Chrysler. Implementation of TQM tools and techniques became imperative for auto component players to become part of the global value chain. Quality Assurance certification such as QS 9000 and TS 16949, which were automotive industry specific, were adopted so that it could enable them to supply to the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and the Tier 1 suppliers. This research paper focuses on the factors that are critical for TQM implementation among QS 9000/TS 16949 certified companies.

The automotive industry boom started towards the middle of last decade, with global vehicle production rising nearly by seven million units between 1990 and 97, and much of this growth concentrated in the developing countries. At present the size of the global auto component industry is approximately $1 tn and is expected to touch $2.3 tn in 2010. The Indian automotive industry has also witnessed rapid growth in recent years, with a Cumulative Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14 percent. The Indian auto component industry has also had a phenomenal growth of 19 percent (CAGR) owing to the derived demand for the automotive industry, rapidly growing replacement market and influx of global OEMs into the Indian market. The Indian auto component manufacturers had to gear up to deliver to the requirements of the auto manufacturers.

Quality is one of the important critical success factors to achieve competitiveness in organizations (Khanna et al., 2002). One of the major reasons for the dismal performance of the Indian automobile sector in world markets was the lack of effective quality management systems (Khanna et al., 2002). The success of the Japanese automobile industry in the late 1980s is owed largely to the adoption of quality improvement methodologies, including TQM. Since then, TQM has played a major role in transforming manufacturing and service organizations world over and Indian companies have followed suit.

Critical Success Factors of TQM in Auto Component Industry,Indian, industry, component, companies, automotive, organizations, automobile, influx, manufacturing, players, critical, quality, started, Cumulative, countries, deliver, derived, especially, dramatically, enable, Assurance, Hyundai, improvement, imperative, impact, international, Japanese, Management, marketplace, methodologies, Chrysler, phenomenal, Postglobalization, competitive, replacement, competitiveness