Strategic Total Quality Management

Book excerpt: Strategic Total Quality Management is a new way of looking at quality. It views quality from corporate performance and product quality. Corporate performance is measured by the response of the firm to the emerging changes in its business environment. Increasingly, issues concerning the environment, business ethics and integrity are important and do affect the competitiveness and survivability of the firm. Quality must, therefore, take a more systemic or holistic definition. Also, with the increasing focus on product quality and many companies targeting six sigma or zero defect, product quality alone will not be enough of a competitive weapon for any one firm. Strategic Total Quality Management is based on a measure of quality as the overall performance of the firm. The book discusses all aspects of quality management from a strategic total quality management perspective. It starts with an introduction of this new philosophy of quality, and presents guidelines for its implementation and strategic framework to guide the practice of strategic total quality management. The importance of environmental quality planning is discussed and a chapter is presented on the role of statistics in strategic total quality management. The book then discusses leadership and paradigm innovation and how they influence visionary management and quality practice. An examination of the works of Deming and Juran is synthesized in the context of strategic total quality management. The book will be useful to quality practitioners who need to know of alternative views of quality, students who are constantly challenged by the emerging quality management philosophies, and researchers who need to explore in depth some of these concepts of quality.