Quality management practices in rural and urban SMEs in Bangalore city

In response to increasing global competition, organizations are undergoing massive transformations in the way they are structured, managed and operated. These transformations are evident even with Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs). They encounter difficulties in managing the changes like changes related to customer orders, product design, material requirement, purchase order, production changes, shipment schedules, etc. SME's are focusing their attention on satisfying their customers, SMEs are upgrading their processes and practices to deliver products and services more quickly and efficiently. The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of research into the area of Quality Management Practices like TQM, Six Sigma, lean, kaizen etc… and its application within SMEs. Literature review highlights the importance of Quality Management Practices (QMP) for SMEs in order to improve their current business practices as well as quality of products and services, to ensure long-term survival. However, there are several barriers to effective implementation of QMP in such organizations, namely, the apparent lack of business experience and knowledge, and limitation of financial as well as human resources. This paper presents and analysis the available literature which revolves around Quality Management Practices in SMEs