Total quality management
Total quality management (TQM) consists of organization-wide efforts to "install and make permanent climate where employees continuously improve their ability to provide on demand products and services that customers will find of particular value."[1] "Total" emphasizes that departments in addition to production (for example sales and marketing, accounting and finance, engineering and design) are obligated to improve their operations; "management" emphasizes that executives are obligated to actively manage quality through funding, training, staffing, and goal setting. While there is no widely agreed-upon approach, TQM efforts typically draw heavily on the previously developed tools and techniques of quality control. TQM enjoyed widespread attention during the late 1980s and early 1990s before being overshadowed by ISO 9000, Lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma.
This article is about the specific approach to quality management from the 1980s. For quality management in general, see Quality management.$_$_$DEEZ_NUTS#0__titleDEEZ_NUTS$_$_$
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$_$_$DEEZ_NUTS#0__call_to_action.textDEEZ_NUTS$_$_$Legacy[edit]
Interest in TQM as an academic subject peaked around 1993.[2]
The Federal Quality Institute was shuttered in September 1995 as part of the Clinton administration's efforts to streamline government.[21] The European Centre for Total Quality Management closed in August 2009.[22]
TQM, as a vaguely defined quality management approach, was largely supplanted by the ISO 9000 collection of standards and their formal certification processes in the 1990s. Business interest in quality improvement under the TQM name also faded as Jack Welch's success attracted attention to Six Sigma and Toyota's success attracted attention to lean manufacturing, though the three share many of the same tools, techniques, and significant portions of the same philosophy.
TQM lives on in various national quality awards around the globe.[23]