Purpose – During the last decades, different quality management concepts, including total quality management (TQM), six sigma and lean, have been applied by many different organisations. Although much important work has been documented regarding TQM, six sigma and lean, a number of questions...

Compares and contrasts the organizational routines and outcomes of businesses that are managed using practices grounded in batch‐and‐queue and lean production. The former is shown to be poor at providing senior management with timely and accurate information, thus obscuring or altering...

Purpose – The authors analyze the principles and results of lean production and compare the lean production philosophy with the six sigma quality process and the principles of total quality management (TQM). At the end of the paper, it is discussed how to build the necessary company culture...

The benefits of total productive maintenance (TPM) are quantifiable as a direct contributor to improved bottom‐line performance. Describes the procedures for implementing TPM. Overall TPM aims to result in equipment that is easy to operate flawlessly, requires minimum maintenance effort and is...

Reports on the Thai Foundation Quality System Standard (TFQSS) project which aimed to develop a basic quality management system standard for small Thai manufacturing businesses to assist them in increasing awareness of quality and develop towards the ISO 9000 series standards, without...

In order to provide readers with a better understanding of China’s approach to quality management, this paper presents China’s quality management history, the main quality management efforts adopted by the Chinese government, the product quality situation, and the reasons for product quality...

Total quality management (TQM) for new product development (NPD) implies first, external quality (EQ): a focus on market demands and organizational embedding; second, internal quality (IQ): the efficiency of the primary NPD processes, and third, process quality (PQ): an orientation on...

Since 1987, when the International Organization for Standardization accepted a series of quality norms – the ISO 9000 standards – large companies and small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have been obliged to open their doors to something new: the culture of quality, a message which is...

Recent studies of quality management systems suggest that all the quality dimensions that are expected within an integrated system are strongly associated with the basic framework set by the formal ISO 9001‐based quality accreditation. However, the paradox of reducing variability through...

The rapid fashion swings in popular management theory puzzle and alarm many observers and users of management theory. New concepts arrive, experience a sudden popularity, then flatten out and are soon forgotten or appear old‐fashioned. This article presents a model of such short time...