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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Total quality management (TQM) is an organization-wide approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. It involves employees throughout the organization in continuously improving the processes, products, and services that shape customer experience. Strategy, reliable information, and communication help make quality part of how the organization works—not just a final inspection step.
What total quality management means
TQM treats quality as a shared responsibility across an organization. Rather than assigning it only to a quality-control department, the approach connects customer needs, employee participation, process improvement, and organizational goals. There is no single universal implementation recipe: the term has been used in different ways, but its central aim is long-term success through customer satisfaction. ASQ
TQM has roots in postwar quality work. ASQ traces its development to W. Edwards Deming’s teaching of statistical analysis and quality control in Japan and Joseph M. Juran’s teaching on quality control and managerial breakthrough. Armand Feigenbaum’s Total Quality Control appeared in 1951. TQM became especially popular in the 1980s; many of its ideas are now reflected in quality management systems, standards, and performance-excellence frameworks. ASQ
The eight principles of TQM
ASQ describes eight principles that translate the philosophy into organizational practices:
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- Quality & Performance Excellence
- Customer focus: Understand customer needs and deliver value that meets or exceeds expectations.
- Employee involvement: Engage employees at every level through participation, training, empowerment, and accountability.
- Process approach: Understand, manage, and improve the processes that produce results.
- Integrated system: Align teams and processes around shared quality objectives.
- Strategic and systematic approach: Connect quality efforts to the organization’s long-term goals.
- Continual improvement: Improve processes, products, and services over time, whether through incremental adjustments or larger changes.
- Fact-based decision-making: Use accurate information and objective analysis instead of assumptions.
- Communication: Share direction, progress, and lessons so people can coordinate quality work.
Related frameworks organize overlapping ideas differently. NIST’s Baldrige core values include systems perspective, visionary leadership, customer-focused excellence, valuing people, organizational learning, management by fact, ethics and transparency, and delivery of value and results. NIST describes a systems perspective as “managing all the components of your organization as a unified whole to achieve your mission, ongoing success, and performance excellence.” NIST
Potential benefits—and what they depend on
When applied effectively, TQM may contribute to higher productivity, fewer defects and less waste, lower costs, stronger customer satisfaction and loyalty, improved employee morale, and better processes. These are potential outcomes, not guaranteed effects; they depend on how well the approach fits the organization’s needs and is carried out. ASQ
ISO’s overview of quality management systems (QMS) identifies related potential benefits: more consistent and standardized work, fewer errors, better operational efficiency, greater customer satisfaction, and ongoing evaluation and improvement. Preventing defects can reduce rework or scrap costs, while measurement and audits can help identify weaknesses. These are general QMS benefits, not quantified effects attributable specifically to TQM. ISO
Quality programs can also face practical obstacles. ASQ identifies weak leadership commitment, resistance to change, inadequate workforce preparation or communication, unreliable data, unclear strategic direction, poor cooperation between departments, and insufficient resources or training. A short-term focus on profit and a weak understanding of customer needs can also undermine the work. ASQ
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How to begin implementing TQM
ISO identifies four useful starting actions: obtain leadership commitment, document existing processes, define performance metrics, and train employees. ISO Put them to work as a recurring improvement cycle:
- Choose a customer-relevant problem. Define the issue in terms of the experience or outcome that needs to improve.
- Understand the process. Map how work currently happens, involve the employees who do it, and gather reliable data about performance.
- Select a measurable change. Connect the proposed improvement to customer needs and organizational goals, then decide how to evaluate it.
- Test and review. Compare results with the measure you chose. Check for unintended effects as well as improvement in the original problem.
- Learn and continue. If the change works, standardize it and keep monitoring. If it does not, investigate the process and test a better-informed adjustment.
For example, a service team receiving repeated complaints about slow responses might track response times and complaint themes, map request handoffs, and ask staff who handle the work to help test a revised routing procedure. The team would then check whether delays and complaints declined and whether the change created another service problem. This is an illustrative application of TQM principles, not a reported company case or a documented outcome.
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NIST’s Baldrige program offers a self-assessment route for identifying organizational improvement needs. NIST
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How TQM differs from ISO 9001 and Baldrige
These approaches overlap in their attention to quality and improvement, but they are not interchangeable:
Best Value
| Approach | Purpose | How it guides improvement |
|---|---|---|
| TQM | A management philosophy focused on customer satisfaction, employee participation, and continual improvement. | Organizations apply its principles across their work; there is no single universal implementation recipe. ASQ says many TQM concepts appear in quality management systems, standards, and quality award programs. |
| ISO 9001 | A standard that specifies requirements for a comprehensive quality management system. | Organizations use the standard’s requirements to structure a QMS. The ISO overview describes quality management systems and implementation starting points, rather than treating TQM as the same thing. ISO |
| Baldrige | An integrated performance-management framework. | Its criteria support self-assessment and organizational learning, helping organizations identify areas for improvement. NIST |
The practical distinction is one of role: TQM is a broad management philosophy, ISO 9001 supplies requirements for a QMS, and Baldrige provides a framework for assessing organizational performance. Their ideas can complement one another without making them equivalent.
What recent ASQE survey findings indicate
ASQ reports findings from ASQE’s 2024 Insights on Excellence Benchmarking Highlights Report, based on respondents from 2022–2023. Among the reported results, 42% selected subpar internal or operational processes as a challenging ongoing quality issue from a list of 21 options. On the benefits of quality strategy, 47% said it promoted or enabled continual process improvement, 37% said it improved corporate systems, and 26% said it aligned all organizational levels. Separately, 29% cited a lack of shared learning, information, and knowledge as a quality-program challenge. These are survey responses reported by ASQ, not estimates for all organizations. ASQ
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