Crosby's Total Quality Management

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, previously unchallenged American industries lost substantial market share in both US and world markets. To regain the competitive edge, companies began to adopt productivity improvement programs which had proven themselves particularly successful in Japan. One of these improvement programs was the total quality management (TQM) (Kaynak, 2003).
Since the 1980s to date, there has been an increasing awareness and implementation of practices associated with TQM as well as other manufacturing practices (Cua, Mckone, & Schroeder, 2001).
We have seen the growing adoption of a range of quality and management systems standards, the emergence of total quality …show more content…

Crosby is well-known for his "Quality is free" concept and his zero defects concepts. Crosby’s philosophy can be described best by his 14 quality steps.
Feigenbaum (1991) was the originator of total quality control concept which he introduced in the 1950s as a business method and proposed three steps to quality; quality leadership, modern quality technology and Organizational commitment.
Ishikawa made many contributions to quality. These include the five principles on total quality namely; process affects results, continuous improvement must be a way of life, problems must be prevented rather than reacted to, people who do the work must be involved and results must be measureable and proposed the seven basic tools of quality as a problem solving tool (Ishikawa, 1985, 1989).
Various studies on TQM measurement have led to the identification of practices which are commonly cited as part of a TQM program. These practices include management leadership, training, employee relations, quality data and reporting, supplier quality management, product / service design and process management (Saraph, Benson, & Schroeder, 1989; Flynn, Schroeder, & Sakakibara, 1994; Ahire, Golhar, & Waller,

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