VISION PG COLLEGE

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

MINI PROJECT
ON
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
IN

SUBMITTED BY

Dayaker.k

ROLL NO. 23
CHAPTER-I - ABSTRACT

CHAPTER-II – INTRODUCTION OF TAJ

HOTELS

CHAPTER-III -SERVICE EXCELLENCE IN

TAJ HOTELS

CHAPTER IV- HOTEL BUSINESS SERVICES

INCLUDE

CHAPTER-V -Conclusion
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN A HOTEL INDUSTRY

TAJ GROUP OF HOTELS LIMITED

CHAPTER-I
Total Quality Management (or TQM) is a management concept coined by W. Edwards Deming.
The basis of TQM is to reduce the errors produced during the manufacturing or service process,
increase customer satisfaction, streamline supply chain management, aim for modernization of
equipment and ensure workers have the highest level of training. One of the principal aims of
TQM is to limit errors to 1 per 1 million units produced. The application of TQM can vary
tremendously from business to business, even across the same industry.

Abstract:

Total quality management (TQM) has spread its wings in every sphere of the global corporate
world and Indian companies are no exception. In this first the growth and spread of TQM in
India is traced from its initiation to current status. Further has tried to identify the causes for poor
quality of products and service, and the gaps that exist between the expectations and the outcome
after adopting the TQM practices. Later a critical view of the quality scene in India is presented,
and finally, based on these observations suitable guidelines and recommendations are made to
bridge this gap. It is concluded that there is still a long way to go for Indian companies to receive
the stamp of acceptance for their products at international level.

Scope:

For a Hotel Industry the Total Quality Management is mainly based on services and other
aspects like Price, location, facilities, hotel restaurant, room furnishings, front-desk efficiency
and staff Attitude. Am going to look at the service gaps that occurred in the process of services
in Taj group of hotels.
 CHAPTER-II
INTRODUCTION

The Company was incorporated in 1902 and it opened its first hotel, The Taj Mahal Palace &
Tower, Mumbai, in 1903. The Company then undertook major expansion of The Taj Mahal
Palace & Tower, Mumbai by constructing an adjacent tower block and increasing the number of
rooms from 225 to 565 rooms. With the completion of its initial public offering in the early
1970s, the Company began a long term programmed of geographic expansion and development
of new tourist destinations in India which led to its emergence as a leading hotel chain in India.
From the 1970s to the present day, the Taj Group has played an important role in launching
several of India's key tourist destinations, working in close association with the Indian
Government. The Taj Group has a philosophy of service excellence which entails providing
consistently high levels of personalized service and innovative means of improving service
quality.

The Taj Group has been active in converting former royal palaces in India into world class
luxury hotels such as the Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur, the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur and Umaid
Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. In 1974, the Taj Group opened India's first international five star
deluxe beach resorts, the Fort Aguada Beach Resort in Goa. The Taj Group also began its
business in metropolitan hotels in the 1970s, opening the five-star deluxe hotel Taj Coromandel
in Chennai in 1974, acquiring an equity interest and operating contract for the Taj President, a
business hotel in Mumbai, in 1977, and opening the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi in 1978.

In 1980, the Taj Group took its first step internationally by opening its first hotel outside India,
the Taj Sheba Hotel in Sana'a, Yemen and in the late 1980s, acquired interests in the Crown
Plaza, London, St. James Court, London and 51 Buckingham Gate Luxury Suites and
Apartments in London.

In 1984, the Taj Group acquired under a license agreement each of The Taj West End,
Bangalore, Taj Connemara, Chennai and Savoy Hotel, Ooty, with which the Taj Group made its
foray into Bangalore.

With the opening of the five star deluxe hotel Taj Bengal in Kolkata in 1989; the Taj Group
became the only hotel chain with a presence in the five major metropolitan cities of Mumbai,
Delhi, Kolkatta, Bangalore and Chennai. Concurrently with the expansion of its luxury hotel
chain in the major metropolitan cities, the Taj Group also expanded its business hotels division in
the major metropolitan and large secondary cities in India.

During the 1990s, the Taj Group continued to expand its geographic and market coverage in
India. It developed specialized operations (such as wildlife lodges) and consolidated its position
in established markets through the upgrading of existing properties and development of new
properties. Taj Kerala Hotels & Resorts Limited was set up in the early 1990s along with the
Kerala Tourism Development Corporation. In 1998 the Taj Group opened the Taj Exotica
Bentota which strengthened the Taj Group's market position in Sri Lanka. In 2000, the launch of
the 56 acre Taj Exotica, Goa and the Taj Hari Mahal in Jodhpur were completed.

In 2000, the Taj Group entered into a partnership with the GVK Reddy Group to set up Taj GVK
Hotels and Resorts Limited and thereby obtained a prominent position in the market in the
southern business city of Hyderabad, holding three hotels and a major share of the market. In
2001, the Taj Group took on the management contract of Taj Palace Hotel, Dubai, and has
established itself as an up-market hotel in the Middle East region. The Taj Exotica Resort & Spa,
Maldives launched the Taj Group into the premium luxury hotel market and since its opening in
July 2002, has won several international awards. The Taj Group also obtained licenses to manage
and operate two leisure hotels; the Rawal-Kot, Jaisalmer and Usha Kiran Palace, Gwalior in
October 2002.

In September 2002, the Taj Group acquired an equity interest in the former Regent Hotel in
Bandra which gave the Taj Group access to the midtown and North Mumbai market. The hotel
has since been renamed as the Taj Lands End, Mumbai.

In 2003, the Company celebrated the centenary of the opening of its Flagship hotel, the Taj
Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai.

In 2004 the Taj Group opened Wellington Mews, its first luxury serviced apartment in Mumbai.
In the same year, the Taj Group also launched the first of its "value-for-money" hotels in
Bangalore branded 'Ginger', which division has 11 hotels in various locations in India and is
owned through its wholly owned subsidiary.

In 2005 the Company acquired on lease The Pierre, a renowned hotel in New York City, to enter
the luxury end of the developed hotel markets internationally. The Company entered into a
management contract for Taj Exotica in Palm Island Jumeirah in Dubai to expand its existing
presence in the United Arab Emirates.
 CHAPTER-III
SERVICE EXCELLENCE

In the last few years IHCL has undertaken a number of steps to significantly enhance service
levels to be in line with the best in class. IHCL has constantly benchmarked itself with the key
international luxury chains and strived to raise the bar. IHCL’s service excellence philosophy has
at its core, delivery through our people, processes and culture.

IHCL has taken a number of steps to provide highly personalized service to the discerning
customer, including butler services in its luxury properties. In order to take care of the entire stay
experience, IHCL has also completely revamped its Concierge services. The Centers of
Excellence have been strengthened considerably to train staff to meet the exacting standards of a
truly luxury hotel. Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM) will play a significant role in
raising the bar of service provided. The TBEM has been rolled out in all the three hotel divisions
and will be rolled out to the international properties also.

TATA BUSINESS EXCELLENCE MODEL (TBEM)

In order to intensify the drive for Business Excellence, IHCL conducted Internal Assessments
based on the Tata Business Excellence Model for Luxury, Leisure, and Business SBUs as well as
for Taj SATS Air Catering Limited. The Luxury Division has also applied for External
Assessment, which is to be facilitated by Tata Quality Management Services.

Based on the External Assessment (2003) feedback report and the feedback from the Internal
Assessment, action plans to improve processes which finally impact the overall organizational
effectiveness, have been drawn out and worked upon.

Some of the key initiatives deployed across key hotels of the Taj group in the year 2003-04 are:

Raising the bar in terms of product & service quality: In order to raise the standards of service &
product quality to international levels, we have re-introduced Richey Audits. We are thus able to
benchmark & gauge our performance against international luxury and super-luxury hotels and
upgrade our standards.

INTRODUCTION OF INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES:

Taj group is using the expertise of international consultants and domain experts who work with
us in different functional and operational areas in order to introduce world-class practices. We
have launched the concierge service, butler service, and car hire service in key hotels of the
group. This has resulted in a steep change in service levels.
ROLLOUT OF THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK SYSTEM (CFS):

The CFS was launched in November 2003 and has taken root in 30 hotels across Taj group. It is
the primary and sole customer feedback system of the group. Till date, the system has clocked
around 12,000 pieces of customer feedback. The feedback from all sources gets recorded and
aggregated and analyzed to improve the service quality in areas of concern at each of the hotels.
Feedback is not restricted to only guest difficulties (complaints) but also consists of compliments
and suggestions. The feedback would ultimately be used for product planning as well.

Reinforcement of the use of the Balanced Scorecard: The use of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
has been strengthened across the organization. It is used as the key strategy deployment tool. The
key strategic objectives are captured in the BSC and cascaded across the units & departments.
All the SBU scorecards are aligned with the corporate scorecard, as well as the HR & Sales &
Marketing scorecard.

CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING

In order to make IHCL leaner and carry brand standards across domestic and international
properties, the International division was merged with the Luxury, Business and Leisure
divisions, so as to make the corporate setup leaner and more agile. We also continue to
restructure our balance sheet and reduce the number of under performing / non-performing
assets. Such restructuring, in the previous year, resulted in a net inflow of Rs. 37.25 cores. In the
last financial year, IHCL sold the Gateway Riverview Lodge, Chiplun, which did not meet brand
standards. IHCL would continue to convert to cash / productive use the idle and non-performing
assets as well as restructure under performing properties.

TOP
IHCL’s operational improvement program me, TOP (Total Overdrive for Profits), being
managed jointly with McKinsey & Company, has made significant progress since its inception in
July 2002. The program me has identified improvement ideas across areas like Rooms, Banquets,
Purchase, Engineering, Wines, Mini-bar, In-room dining, Chambers and several other
operational areas. In addition, the TOP team has been working with a cross functional team to
develop a strategy for maximizing revenues from key corporate accounts. The focus of the TOP
team for the next few months will be in ensuring that all identified improvement ideas are fully
implemented. In addition, the team will continue to focus on cost areas and address new areas
like restaurant revenues and capital expenditures.

IT INITIATIVES

From a situation in 1999 where there was limited IT application, Taj group has today achieved
domestic leadership in deploying IT to leverage its competencies and is rapidly approaching
benchmarks set by international highly regarded chains. The first three phases of implementation
of the IT strategy included putting in place the physical infrastructure across the Taj Group and
getting customer relationship applications to ride on this physical infrastructure, with a view to
enhancing customer services through customer information and recognition systems and better
inventory management.

Some of the key IT initiatives being under taken by IHCL are Orion, a comprehensive back
office system, implementing Revenue Management system, Interactive TV Systems and National

CHAPTER IV-

HOTEL BUSINESS SERVICES INCLUDE: 

Business center, with choice of office rooms ranging from 170 sq ft to 230 sq ft. These rooms are
furnished with desks and storage space.
The Board room is 372 sq ft and comes equipped with the latest telecommunication facilities,
video conferencing and internet.
Secretarial services,
Interpretation and translation facilities are also available on request, with prior notice.
In-house library
Wireless Internet access.
Airport transfers on request
Business Centre (24 Hrs.)
Car hire service
Car park
Car wash
Caretaking services
Concierge services (24 Hrs.)
Crèche (complimentary for children from 2-8 years, from Monday-Saturday)
Currency Exchange
Delicatessen and mini mart
Doctor on Call
Dual line telephones
Express Check-in & Check-out
Full power back up
Gardens (80,000 sq. ft.)
Grocery delivery services
Gymnasium
Housekeeping (complimentary once a day)
Internet/E-mail/Fax Facilities
Jogging/ walking track
Laundry Services
Library
Lounge & dinning/ party room for 45 people
Mail and courier services
Maintenance available 24 hours
Personal safe
Pet walkers on request with prior notice
Postal/Parcel services
Satellite channels
Site seeing tours
Spa
Swimming Pool
Travel arrangements
Utility areas are equipped with washing machines, dryers, iron and ironing board
Wi-Fi internet access all Center.

CHAPTER-V

Conclusion:-

TQM helped resurrect Japanese business & industries after World war.

TQM originated in a manufacturing environment and its terminology and techniques have
largely been developed in that environment.

Its application in a service environment thus requires adaptation of the ideas to a different set of
circumstances.

The major distinctions between service and manufacturing organizations are that of the product.

Product of the service industry -

- is intangible and ephemeral

- is perishable

- Frequently involves the customer in the delivery of the product

- is not perceived as a product by employees

Intangible- very difficult to place quantifiable terms on the features that contribute to the quality
of the product. This could make measurement of the quality of the product a problem for TQM

Perishable- they cannot be stockpiled and must be produced 'on demand‘

Frequently involves the Customer-customer is frequently directly involved in the delivery of

the service and as such introduces an unknown and unpredictable influence on the process. The
customer also adds uncertainty to the process because it is often difficult to determine the exact
requirements of the customer and what they regard as an acceptable standard of service.
Not perceived as a product by employees- In manufacturing industries the product is highly
visible and therefore identifiable whereas in service organizations the 'product' is frequently
'invisible'. Often a person in a service industry has no perception of their work being a product
and that the way in which his job is performed has an impact on the Quality is considered to be
of very great importance in the hospitality industry.

However, the issue of measurement still remained a problem since 'Service' cannot be stored, so
the measurement must be immediate. Finally, the service is delivered at the moment it is
produced. Any measurement taken is thus too late to avoid a failure in contact with the customer.

Components of perceived “service quality” –

1. Reliability- the ability to provide a service as expected by the customer

2. Assurance- the degree to which the customer can feel confident that the service will be
correctly provided success of the organization as a whole.

3. Tangibles: the quality of the physical environment and materials used in providing the
service

4. Responsiveness: the ability of the service provider to respond to the individual needs of a
particular customer

5. Empathy: the courtesy, understanding and friendliness shown by the service provider.

“Thus TQM suffers from the problems noted above for service quality measurements but, Once a
service organization identifies measurement techniques they should not experience any
difficulties other than those faced in the manufacturing sector.