Relevance of Total Quality Management (TQM) or Business Excellence Strategy Implementation for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)-A Conceptual Study

摘要

Organizations worldwide have been exploring ways to improve business practices to gainrncompetitive edge. One of the most important technological innovations of the last decadernhas been the emergence of ERP solutions. But implementation of ERP is not just arntechnological challenge. It's a socio-technological endeavor, which mandates modifyingrnexisting applications and redesigning critical business processes to facilitate ERPrnimplementation. Hence, there are organizational and cultural issues, which determine thernsuccess of ERP implementation. The main objective of implementing an ERP system isrnto integrate the organizations business processes and operations for improved businessrnresults. But not all organizations have been successful in the ERP implementation. Thernaim of this paper is to understand the importance of Total Quality Management (TQM)rnphilosophy or Business Excellence Models-Strategy Implementation for ERPrnImplementation within organizations. There is very little research done where the conceptrnof TQM as a philosophy or Business Excellence strategy implementation, whichrnintegrates the concept of ERP implementation. This paper is an attempt to integrate thernconcept of ERP implementation within a broader perspective of TQM as a part ofrncorporate strategy in an organization. Business Excellence strategy implementation,rnencompassing the concept of ERP implementation is also discussed. The paper buildsrnupon the foundation on the major research done in the area of TQM or BusinessrnExcellence. The concerns and issues for TQM and ERP implementation are discussed. Arnsmall case study, of the first company in India to get the coveted Deming Prize based onrnthe integrated Japanese Model for Business Excellence, Sundaram Clayton, is discussedrnin the paper. The paper attempts to give a holistic perspective of ERP implementation asrna part of TQM or Business Excellence Strategy Implementation.