A study on the efficiency evaluation of total quality management activities in Korean companies

Abstract

Total quality management (TQM) can be considered as a system that has input processes and output processes. Therefore, the principal managerial efficiency criteria of maximum outputs with minimum inputs should be applied to TQM. In this paper, the methodology for the performance evaluation of TQM by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is proposed. AHP is employed to quantify the weights of success factors for TQM. The proposed methodology is applied to the sample of 101 Korean firms. The firm-specific TQM efficiency level is presented, and the surplus and dual prices for the firms with and without ISO certification and large and small-sized firms are analysed. Several findings are expected to provide a new perspective for the evaluation of TQM.