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Total Quality Management
Entrepreneurs are learning that total quality management(TQM) can be critical to survival.
TQM has become the most popular abbreviation since TGIF. Total Quality Management, an umbrella term for the quality programs, has
spread throughout the business community in the past dozen years.
TQM first took hold in big manufacturing companies that faced jarring challenges from Asian competitors. In the years just after
World War II, Asian businesses embraced the quality messages of such American advisers as W. Edwards Deming (an American statistician, professor,
author, lecturer, and consultant) and J.M. Juran (an American management consultant), Bell Labs, and Marshall Industries
and by the 1970s, Asian products had acquired powerful reputations for high quality.
Growing numbers of U.S. manufacturers and big service companies have fought back with quality programs of their own and in recent times have
matched and or surpassed the Asian manufactures. e.g., Ford Motor Company, Western Electric, Boeing, Bell Labs have made great strides in
TQM.
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Small Business TQM Impact
Increasingly, the small businesses that supply big TQM companies have felt the impact of those quality programs, because the big companies
have insisted that their small suppliers adopt quality programs of their own. In these competitive times, small businesses are finding that
TQM is "making them money" by maintaining their client base and providing an incentive for new customers to "come on board".
part of their daily activities.
There's a simple reason for such customer pressure: When an appliance manufacturer is trying to produce defect-free products, it cannot
tolerate defects in the parts provided by its small suppliers. Additionally, handling returns based on defective products and or services
is exceedingly costly for small businesses. Investments in TQM are an investment in the future growth and sustainability of the company.
Information Systems Associates (ISABIZ®) understands TQM and its importance to small businesses. To request a Free Assessment of your
TQM, give us a call at 865-824-3308 or
Click Here To Complete Our Questionaire To Get Started.
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