Total Quality Management is an integrated approach to management that continuously improves the quality of products and services to achieve customer satisfaction. Even though researchers throughout the world have developed various models to measure service quality in service organizations, the instrument SERVQUAL formed the basis for all the models. After a careful analysis of SERVQUAL, it has been found that certain important aspects of service quality were not covered in it. Hence, this research work proposes a conceptual framework and an instrument for measuring the customer-perceived service quality. The instrument has been designed with specific reference to the automobile service sector. Data have been collected from the customers of various automobile service stations. The proposed instrument has been empirically tested for convergent validity, unidimensionality and reliability using a confirmatory factor analysis approach. A conceptual framework for service quality has been proposed based on the results and findings of the research work.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to show that a popular conception among the practitioners is that Total Quality Service (TQS) has a long-range perspective and the organizations that have adopted TQS could be able to see the results of their quality improvement initiatives only after a long duration. Hence firms that have been practicing TQS are interested to know the time duration before which they can get back the returns on investments in quality improvement programmes. Design/methodology/approach -The present study attempts to empirically investigate the impact of TQS age on quality and operational performance. In order to examine the impact of TQS age on the different dimensions of TQS, out of the 12 critical dimensions of TQS, the two outcome constructs, namely Customer Focus and Satisfaction and Employee Satisfaction, have been considered for measuring quality performance while the other ten dimensions have been considered for measuring operational performance. Findings -The results imply that the firms can get back their returns on investments in their quality management initiatives within three years of TQS implementation. The ways, commitment and the competence with which the TQS implementation is carried out are more important rather than the duration of TQS implementation. Further, among the successful firms, it has been observed that as TQS age increases, quality and operational performance also increases, since firms get more and more experienced in effective implementation of TQS in a continuously improving environment. Originality/value -The impact of TQS age on quality and operational performance has been investigated in a developing economy with respect to the automobile service industry. Primarily this is a research paper and the results and findings will be of immense use to the business executives of service firms.

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SUMMARYThin layer drying experiments of bagasse were carried out to determine the drying kinetics and also to identify a suitable drying model. The drying experiments were conducted in a laboratory scale dryer for a wide range of air temperatures (80-1208C), velocities (0.5-2 m/s), humidity level of air (9-24 g water(kg of d.a) À1) and product thickness (20-60 mm). Air temperature, velocity, humidity and mass of product were recorded continuously during experimentation. The data were fitted to the different semi-theoretical or empirical models and compared based on their correlation coefficient (r), chi-square (w 2 ), root mean square error and mean bias error values. Among the models considered, the Page model gave accurate predictions with a correlation coefficient of 0.99627. It is found that the drying of bagasse takes place only in the falling rate period, even though the product has high initial moisture content.