Total quality management or TQM is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes.
TQM is based on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization, requiring the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and customers, to meet or exceed customer expectations.
TQM and Six Sigma
The TQM concept was developed by a number of American management consultants, including W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, and Armand V. Feigenbaum. Originally, these consultants won few converts in the United States. However, managers in Japan embraced their ideas enthusiastically and even named their premier annual prize for manufacturing excellence after Deming.
The Six Sigma management strategy originated in 1986 from Motorola’s drive towards reducing defects by minimizing variation in processes.
The main difference between TQM and Six Sigma (a newer concept) is the approach. At its core, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work.
The methods for implementing this approach come from people such as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach that seeks to improve quality and performance which will meet or exceed customer expectations. This can be achieved by integrating all quality-related functions and processes throughout the company. TQM looks at the overall quality measures used by a company including managing quality design and development, quality control and maintenance, quality improvement, and quality assurance. TQM takes into account all quality