Total quality management in manufacturing firms: current and future trends

Abstract

Purpose The shifting and growing tendencies of total quality management (TQM) research are spotlighted in an era of digitization and Industry 5.0. Whether TQM is a fad or a sustainable approach is a topic of continuous discussion among researchers. Thus, the purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyze the body of literature on TQM in the manufacturing industry and advocate areas for further research. Design/methodology/approach A “systematic literature network analysis” (SLNA) approach is used to accomplish the research goals. It combines bibliometric analyses and a thorough literature review. A corpus of 204 studies from 1987–2022 is finalized from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. To further enrich the findings, the “TCCM (theory, context, characteristics, and methodology)” framework is applied. The Biblioshiny through R-Studio is used to perform the bibliometric analysis. Findings The bibliometric results show that TQM is not a fading phenomenon in the manufacturing industry. The findings indicate that TQM studies gained considerable attention in developed economies and need more focus in emerging and developing economies. Originality/value The review uses evolving theoretical frameworks with a variety of characteristics and advanced analytical techniques, taking into account prior research findings and outlining the agenda for future study in the context of understudies.