The conventional wisdom of managers in the US dictates that improving product quality will increase the cost of making the product which will either increase the price or reduce the profits. Shows that improving the quality of a product or service will not necessarily increase its manufacturing...

Most quality professionals recommend a core set of attributes as the nucleus of any quality improvement process. These attributes include: (1) clarifying job expectations; (2) setting quality standards; (3) measuring quality improvement; (4) effective super‐vision; (5) listening by management;...

Since 1987, 17 businesses have won the US Baldrige Quality Award, established to promote awareness of quality management among US businesses. Assesses the financial and competitive performances of these 17 companies. Previous research with respect to the quality‐performance relationship has...

The US Department of Defense is playing a significant leadership role in implementation of TQM. Provides an overview of the process of implementing total quality management in the US Department of Defense and discusses the implications of this change for its subcontractors and related...

Considers the approaches to quality improvement undertaken by organizations in Korea, New Zealand and the United States of America. Relates alternative quality improvement approaches to actual operating and financial performance. Productivity improvement approaches were also investigated and...

Technical specifications may not in themselves guarantee that a customer’s requirements will be consistently met, if there happen to be any deficiencies in the specifications or in the organizational system designed to produce the product or service. It was in this context that the...