Implementation of Self-assessment Evaluation for Total Quality Management: A Case Study of Wholesale Sectors

A competitive strategy in wholesale sector especially in traditional trading business is very important task for sustainable business. Weaknesses of traditional wholesale sector compose of experience based business without new technology, lack of knowledge/knowhow transferring, and independent management without cluster group. The study involves shop owners as respondents and uses Total Quality Management (TQM) checklist, observational study and interview for data gathering. From the results, the researchers found that there is a big gap between traditional trade and modern trade. Also, continuous improvement, breakthrough and standardization using total quality management (TQM) play a key role as impact procedure to increase competitiveness in this sector to modern trade. The overall improvement in traditional wholesale sector based on government activities were activated and strongly improved the score in each criterion. In addition, TQM in four models of traditional wholesale sectors including Kaitsin (KK), Leng Seng (LS), Samorn Paiboon (SMP) and Khay Chuan (KC) were input using workshop, on the job training, self assessment evaluation, implementation and standardization. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.