Total quality management (TQM) is a management philosophy and strategy designed to involve all members of an organization in the process and responsibility for producing quality products and services. Total quality management is based on the ideas of W. Edward Deming, Philip B. Crosby, and Joseph M. Juran, quality-control experts in the United States and Japan. TQM was first associated with the Toyota production system. Companies using a total quality management system typically incorporate

• just-in-time production (JIT) systems
  
• business process reengineering, analyzing and redesigning the work environment
  
• traditional quality systems such as ISO 9000

As a corporate philosophy, total quality management includes eight principles.

• Define quality in terms of customers and their requirements.
  
• Pursue quality at the source.
  
• Stress objectives rather than subjective measurement and analysis.
  
• Emphasize prevention rather than detection of defects.
  
• Focus on process rather than output.
  
• Strive for zero defects.
  
• Establish continuous improvement as a way of life.
  
• Make quality everyone’s responsibility.

The nine total quality management principles lead to sets of activities that will vary, depending on the nature of the organization. Management professor Robert J. Trent developed a set of activities for applying total quality management (TQM) to supply-chain management (purchasing), including the following.

• Identify internal supply-chain customers and establish communication linkages.
  
• Conduct regular performance reviews.
  
• Create performance measures that quantify expectations and requirements.
  
• Involve suppliers early in product and process development.
  
• Develop a consistent source-selection procedure.
  
• Upwardly migrate supplier-performance targets.
  
• Use longer-term contracts selectively.

Traditionally issues of product inspection and quality are associated with manufacturing processes, but in a total quality management system quality is perceived to be the concern of all members of the organization. TQM consultant Rod Collard describes the implications of total quality management programs as

• reductions in staff numbers, particularly those previously responsible for directing others
  
• changes to a flatter management style, including teamworking and cross-functional teams
  
• less control of tasks by individuals, since everyone is responsible for quality

While total quality management remains a popular and widely used management practice (a 1997 United Kingdom survey indicated over two-thirds of the country’s 500 largest companies had implemented TQM), it is subject to a variety of criticisms. Dr. Edward Lestrade, one of the leading critics of total quality management practices in the United Kingdom, describes the goal of total quality management (TQM) as being “designed to be motivational, in that it increase the responsibilities of the employees in the organization and widens the scope of their duties. However, the reality is that the natural outcome of the organizational total quality management system is to drive the employee to work harder and longer hours thereby increasing the potential for incidences of stress-related illness.” In Japan the term karoshi (death from overwork) is associated with the stress and demands made in organizations practicing TQM. Lestrade concludes, “I recommend therefore that organizations using total quality management, should, for legal, ethical as well as commercial reason, investigate other methods of management as a matter of some urgency.”
Other critics of total quality management are less dramatic than Dr. Lestrade. Many organizations have found total quality management too deliberative and quantitatively oriented to utilize in fast-changing markets. Author John Addey identified a variety of myths associated with quality systems, one of which is the idea that staff follow quality control procedures during their daily work. Addey suggests that workers actually tend to do what they think will work, ignoring often-boring and inaccurate or inappropriate quality-control guidelines. Another myth is that quality audits are a good way to find problems, and managers welcome auditors as a means of identifying opportunities to improve. As Addey points out, though, quality audits review only the past, not current situations. Since they are based on samples and are usually carried out by external staff, they may be resisted by workers in the affected unit. Addey notes, “In quality management systems effectiveness is rarely assessed; most audits only check compliance.” He provides many other myths about quality management as well, including the statement, “If everything is controlled, all will be well.” Addey suggests instead that sometimes the best control is no control at all.
While it is still espoused in many organizations, total quality management probably peaked as a management system in the United States in the mid-1990s.
See also Deming’s 14 points.