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The purpose of this paper is to review critical success factors (CSFs) of total quality management (TQM), and to rank these in the Indian manufacturing industry.

To rank the CSFs, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used. The data were collected using questionnaires as the research instrument.

Process management, top management leadership and customer focus are the top three factors for implementation of TQM in the manufacturing industry in India. Quality citizenship is a relatively low‐ranked factor.

The findings will be useful in successful implementation of TQM in developing countries like India. Further research may be carried out into the CSFs in different national contexts.

The paper is the first to make use of TOPSIS approach to rank the CSFs of TQM.

The integration of management systems has become a popular subject for research and practice. However, there is a considerable lack of literature on integrated management systems (IMS) in developing countries. This study aims to examine the current status, motivation and perceived benefits of IMS in manufacturing organizations in India.

To examine the status of IMS in the Indian manufacturing sector, a survey was sent to 270 manufacturing organizations in India using a questionnaire as the survey instrument. Only 60 organizations participated in the survey. Subsequently, one case study was undertaken.

The research reflects the status of IMS in India. The majority of the responding organizations are implementing IMS. The findings suggest that the most important motivating factors are to promote synergies among different management systems (MS), to combine objectives of different MS, and to avoid duplication of procedures. The perceived benefits of IMS are reduction in the duplication of policies, procedures and work instructions, reduced costs, higher transparency, time saving, and synergy between MS.

One of the major limitations of this study is the small sample size, which precludes generalization of the findings. This study provides a starting point for further research in developing countries.

This research makes a contribution to the existing body of knowledge on IMS and provides results of value to IMS researchers and practitioners.

This paper offers key insights into IMS implementation in India. This will encourage manufacturing organizations in India and other developing countries to adopt IMS.

Over recent the past decades, integrated management systems (IMS) have emerged as one of the major tasks for practising managers and the academic community. In this context, this paper aims at identifying relevant practices related to an IMS in an organisation that belongs to the sugar cane and ethanol agricultural industrial sector in Brazil.

A review of mainstream literature on IMS is conducted followed by case‐based research used as the methodological approach. Data were gathered through a questionnaire as well as face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews. The analysis was done a posteriori to construct the case description and perform the analysis.

Issues that motivated the IMS implementation were identified. The paper also highlights the difficulties experienced and benefits accrued during implementation. The existence of a previous quality management system facilitated the implementation of the IMS. Nevertheless, a longitudinal study is desirable to assess further results in the long term.

This work is limited to a single unit of analysis. Therefore, empirical replications in other samples are needed to validate current findings.

This is one of the first known studies to investigate the implementation of an IMS in a manufacturing unit that produces sugar and ethanol.