Exploring the application of quality improvement programmes and ISO standards in the Indian marble mining sector

In this era of globalisation, as competition intensifies, providing quality products and services has become a competitive advantage and a need to ensure survival. To ensure such competitive advantage, organisations of different industries around the world have implemented several quality improvement programmes like ISO, TQM and Six Sigma. This paper explores the application of quality improvement programmes in the marble mining industry of India. A questionnaire survey was designed, validated and distributed to 52 Indian marble organisations. A total of 35 responses were obtained and analysed using descriptive statistics. Then, since the literature review and preliminary results of the questionnaire indicated ISO as the most popular quality improvement approach in this sector, an exploratory case study was conducted in India's leading marble mining company to gain more in-depth information about the application of ISO in this particular industrial sector. The results revealed that the marble mining industry of India lacks far behind in relation to other industries of this country, with ISO 9000 being the most popular quality improvement approach. The results also provide evidence of the degree of awareness, implementation issues and results achieved through the ISO implementation in this industry.