Content area
Full Text
Armand V. "Val" Feigenbaum is an Honorary Member of ASQ and the International Academy for Quality, is a member of the National Academy of Engineers and has three honorary doctorate degrees. Why is he so revered?
Feigenbaum was one of the first engineers to learn how to speak the language of management by using financial performance as an indicator of poor quality. Over the years he has refined his business theories to demonstrate the economic relationships whereby quality drives commercial performance.
Feigenbaum's study of the macroeconomic impact of quality improvement has demonstrated a lag between the initiation of total quality improvement programs within a nation's leading companies and the observed economic effects throughout general business. For example, quality was introduced in Japan in the 1950s, but its economy didn't flower until the 1970s. Similarly, the United States began using quality in the early 1980s but didn't see economic success until the 1990s.
The commercial success of Feigenbaum's total quality control concept is undisputable when faced with its wide number of proponents throughout the global business community. Total quality control, known today as total quality management (TQM), is one of the foundations of modern management and has been widely accepted as a viable operating philosophy in all economic sectors.1
The pragmatic, economic basis established for defining total quality and the integration of previous concepts and methods of quality control into a systematic discipline are what has made Feigenbaum's work so significant. Commercial success for many industries has resulted from the system of thinking Feigenbaum first introduced in the 1950s and enhanced over the years. He is recognized as one of the most significant thought leaders in this second generation of the science of management.2
TQM, coupled with a commercially viable product or service, has been proven an important ingredient in commercial success and may be compared to some of the more significant scientific breakthroughs in the discovery of the structure of the physical world.3 A fundamental ingredient in the recipe for commercial success, TQM is necessary to ensure sustainable profitability and an enduring place in the market.
More Than a Method
TQM is more than a quality method; it combines management methods and economic theory with organizational principles to institute a sound business improvement doctrine that...