Total Quality Management Defined in Terms of Reported Practice

Total quality management (TQM) has taken hold in the Western world. Organizations are either adopting or contemplating adoption of TQM programmes before they fully realize what they are getting into. Seeks to lift some of the veil on TQM. The TQM concept is described or defined in terms of what over two dozen large and well‐known Western firms are doing and achieving as a result of their TQM programmes. Specifically, reveals that TQM focuses on the customers, empowers and utilizes ideas from employees either individually or in teams, focuses on cost reduction efforts internally and on the part of the supplier, utilizes concurrent engineering and devotes considerable resources to education and training.