Impact of Quality Management and Process Integration on Supply Chain Performance in Indian Automotive Industry

Abstract

Focus of this thesis is to empirically validate the impact of quality management and process integration on supply chain performance with reference to Indian automotive industry. Extensive literature review and citation analysis helped in identification of top management commitment and supplier relationship management as vital quality management and process integration constructs that impact the supply chain performance (upstream supply chain flexibility and customer satisfaction) of automotive organizations. Moreover, research gap emphasizes that process simplification has a mediating impact on the relationship between quality management and process integration constructs, and supply chain performance. Research gap helped in formulation of the hypothesized relationships as well as the conceptual framework (presented below). The conceptual framework highlights that simplified processes mediates the impact of quality management and process integration (top management commitment and supplier relationship management) on supply chain performance (upstream supply chain flexibility and customer satisfaction) issues of automotive organizations. Both researchers and corporate executives alike have focused on fact that integrated and then simplified upstream supply chain processes lead to removal of redundant manufacturing processes, reduction in complexity of the process and an increase in manufacturing responsiveness. Therefore, there is a requirement to blend quality management and process integration for improving the supply chain performance of organizations. A research instrument was prepared based on the valuable feedback from industry and academia. This process helped to ensure comprehensiveness, clarity, face validity and readability of the scale. Snowball sampling methodology was used to collect data from automotive organizations on a five-point Likert Scale (Strongly Disagree - Strongly Agree). PROWESS database was used to calculate the average financial standalones of the selected firms from 2012 to 2015.