History of Total Quality Management

Before jumping to History of Total Quality Management, let’s understand first that the Total Quality Management philosophy of management is customer-oriented. All members of a total quality management (control) organization strive to systematically manage the improvement of the organization through the ongoing participation of all employees in problem solving efforts across functional and hierarchical boundaries.

The History of Total Quality Management In the late 1970's to mid-1980's U. S. companies were seeking ways to survive in an environment of back-to-back recessions; deregulation; a growing trade deficit; low productivity; downsizing; and an increase in consumer awareness and sophistication. Ford Motor Company had operating losses of 3.3 billion between 1980 and 1982. Xerox, which had pioneered the paper copier, saw its U.S. market share drop from 93% in 1971 to 40% in 1981. Attention to quality was seen as a way to combat the competition.

Let’s see few early success stories the History of Total Quality Management:

• Florida Power & Light (FPL) reduced customer complaints by 60% and improved reliability of electric services to customers by 40% in 1983. In 1987, the firm was rated by 156 utility CEO's as the best managed utility in the nation.
• In its remittance banking or lock-box business, First Chicago's accuracy rate is nearly three times the industry average.
• Xerox has started to regain its market share in copiers from the Japanese.
• Ford now has one of the most popular cars purchased by Americans, the Taurus

As per the History of Total Quality Management many of the TQM concepts originated with the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the American statistician, who guided the Japanese industry's recovery after World War II and who formed many of his ideas during World War II when he taught American industries how to use statistical methods to improve the quality of military products.

Ironically, while the Japanese religiously listened to Deming, American industry did not. For nearly two decades, before and after World War II, American businesses were paramount and supreme. In this period of little foreign competition, American management methods were unchallenged and in hindsight, costly practices of traditional hierarchy took hold.

Meanwhile, industrial leaders in Japan, burdened with a reputation for poor quality, invited Dr. Deming to teach them his methods. Deming urged them to find out what their customers wanted, then study and improve the design and production processes until the quality of their product was unsurpassed. He urged a new style of management that shifts the focus from profits to quality. He reasoned that employees could learn how to monitor, control and continually improve their work processes and systems with the application of a scientific approach. With the collective attention of people to their work processes and their interdependency, they are better able to produce products that meet customer expectations. With total quality control (TQM), decisions are based on data gathered with scientific tools and approaches. Products and services are improved by improving how the work gets done i.e. the methods, instead of what is done i.e. the results.