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The TQM Journal 25th anniversary special issue
Edited by Dr Alexander Douglas
Introduction
The conceptual root of total quality management (TQM) can be traced to the work of Walter Shewhart in statistical process control (SPC) at the Bell Laboratories in the USA during the 1920s. Shewhart's concern was to develop a system to measure variables in production. Additionally, he designed the plan-do-check-act cycle, which applied the scientific method to improve the work process ([11] Evans and Lindsay, 2001).
Shewhart's early work on the statistical control of processes and the control chart established a foundation for the quality of management movement. His emphasis on the need for statistical analysis to create adequate understanding of work processes was clearly seminal for grasping the essence and causes of variation, both controlled and uncontrolled ([1] Bank, 1992).
Following Shewhart's innovations, the three major pioneers in the quality movement emerged - all Americans - W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, and Philip B. Crosby ([11] Evans and Lindsay, 2001). Fundamentally, through Shewhart's work, these later pioneers, or quality gurus as they are referred to, grasped the significance and the basis of variation in production (Tribus, cited in [1] Bank, 1992). Deming himself specified that: "If I had to replace my message to managers to just a few words, I'd say it all had to do with reducing variation" (cited in [1] Bank, 1992).
The contributions of Deming, Juran, and Crosby to improving quality have had a profound impact on countless managers and organizations around the world. Other, somewhat more derivative theorists, important to the revolution in quality management, include Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa, Bill Conway, Genichi Taguchi, Shigeo Shingo, and W.G. Ouchi. In the following sections, each of these nine contributors to our present day understanding of TQM is considered individually. In subsequent sections, the individual TQM approaches of major theorists are compared. Models and frameworks of TQM derived from theory are described; and, finally, empirical studies of TQM and associated critical factors are presented.
Deming's philosophy and contribution
The origins of the quest for quality management in the minds of many analysts may not be so certain and clear as those outlined above. Some controversy is apparent ([9] Dow et al. , 1999). [23] Powell (1995), for...