Quality management in the resources department of Leicester City Council

The resources department has introduced a wide range of initiatives to achieve quality management with the aim of delivering quality services to customers. Research has shown an improvement in quality management and a commitment to further improvement. Notable improvements include a change to the organizational culture, the application of continuous improvement and the development of a quality assurance programme which can be extended to include ISO 9000. The commitment to further improvement needs to be considered in terms of a more formal approach to total quality management (TQM). An established integrated approach called the TQMEX model is particularly appropriate for consideration. The output of the research is a TQM strategic plan based on the status quo of Leicester City Council, the theoretical background of the TQMEX model, and the experience of the author in total quality practices and from his attendance at the 1st International Conference on ISO 9000 and Total Quality Management (1st ICIT) in April 1996.