The evolution of quality management

In establishing an understanding of what is meant by the term 'quality

management' in the 1990s, it is important to consider that as a management
philosophy it has evolved over a period of some fifty years. Indeed, it could be
argued that its historical origins date back at least to the medieval craft guilds, and
isolated examples can be found much earlier. The Industrial Revolution saw a shift
from the work of the highly skilled individual to mass production techniques,
relying on final inspection to ensure the quality of the finished product. This
approach continued into the twentieth century. Quality control took this a stage
further, through use of more sophisticated methods and systems. The main thrust
of quality control was error detection and elimination, which is sometimes referred
to as 'fire-fighting' (Dale, 1994).

Quality assurance heralded a change in approach with prevention based

systems replacing those of error detection. Instead of checking products for quality
after production, the focus shifted to ensuring that quality is built in at the design
stage. Quality assurance adumbrates the new philosophy of Total Quality
Management (TQM); the approach is proactive, and requires a different type of
thinking and a democratic style of management.

TQM requires quality management principles to be applied to all aspects of

an organization's business, in what has been termed a 'core value chain',
comprising customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and the community
(Oakland, 1994). It is probably best thought of as a goal towards which an
organization is continually striving, rather than a management system to be
implemented and then left to operate. Tenner and De Toro (1992) suggest that
TQM is based on:

One objective Continuous improvement

 Three Principles. Customer Focus;
Process improvement and
total involvement
and six supporting elements:

'leadership'

'education and training' 'a supportive structure' 'communications' 'reward and

recognition' and 'measurement'