Abstract Quality management in continuous process industries requires systemic approaches capable of integrating strategy, operational control, information governance, and organizational learning. In sugar mills, the evaporation sector plays a critical role in thermal efficiency, operational stability, and product quality, yet managerial maturity in this area remains insufficiently structured in the literature. This study proposes and applies an integrated diagnostic framework to assess the maturity of quality management in the evaporation sector of a large sugarcane processing plant. The framework was structured into nine interdependent subsystems and operationalized through a 96-question instrument. Question weights were determined using the Improved Analytic Hierarchy Process, and inter-rater reliability was assessed through the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. The results indicated good agreement among experts in the weighting stage and statistically adequate reliability. The evaluated sector presented intermediate maturity, with strengths in strategic alignment and quality planning, and limitations in information governance, analytical use of indicators, documentation standardization, and structured human resource development. The findings suggest that improving the integration between data analysis, decision-making, and continuous learning is more critical than increasing isolated control mechanisms. The proposed framework contributes a structured and replicable tool for diagnosing managerial maturity in continuous process environments and supports prioritization of improvement actions aligned with operational performance and long-term sustainability.
Gonçalves et al. (Mon,) studied this question.