What constitutes a success, survivor, or failure regarding UK quality circle programmes, is not a clear‐cut issue, according to results from four questionnaire‐based surveys carried out by the Department of Management Sciences at UMIST, 1982–4. It is an open question whether some quality...

A recent research project on white collar quality circles in manufacturing industry was carried out because previous research at UMIST indicated that white collar circles were more difficult to set up and sustain. The study involved interviews in eleven companies which had or had had white...

Work carried out to develop a quality improvement programme in a customised manufacturing situation is reported on. There were many influences on the host company that made quality improvement desirable. These included initiatives such as the United Kingdom′s National Quality Campaign, the...

This article reports on an examination of the activities of a purchasing department in a sales‐oriented company. Amongst the main findings are: a company which has always based its strategy on increasing sales to facilitate competitive advantage should undertake a close examination of the...

Uses the three quality dimensions of: systems; tools and techniques; and people, analyses the contribution of UK writers to the development of the body of knowledge known as total quality management (TQM). From examination of a range of source material (e.g. books, papers, postgraduate theses,...