A Framework for Total Productivity Management (TPMan) in a Resort Environment

The service environment, particularly the tourism sector, has become increasingly relevant in providing sustainable jobs across the globe. The resort environment consists of any combination of guest experience offerings such as accommodation, restaurants, events, and activities that operate mostly within one geographical environment. Furthermore, through an extensive literature review, it is found that the resort environment lacks practical quality improvement tools to enable continuous improvement (CI) within this remarkably complex and competitive space. This article aims to introduce a novel CI framework aimed at the resort environment to ensure a progressive competitive edge. This article illustrates a framework that builds a Total Productivity Management (TPMan) tool on these three dimensions as a foundation with an adapted quality methodology, which has been tried and tested within the manufacturing environment, providing eight pillars as CI components. The article illustrates the results by means of a case study where TPMan was applied over a period of 8 years within a local high-end resort in South Africa. The article concludes that TPMan is relevant to the resort environment as a practical CI tool.