Total Quality Management (TQM)

A management approach in which all departments, employees and managers are responsible for continuously improving quality so that products and services meet or exceed customer expectations. Its earlier form, Total Quality Control (TQC), uses the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to manage processes and statistical tools to solve problems that arise. The methodology and its tools are used by employees during kaizen activities and form a subsystem of lean.

Source checked2/2 values · 2026-10-25Methodology

Specification

1 source

Kind	methodology
Origin	Coined by Armand Feigenbaum in 1957

Study notes

The term "total quality control" was coined in 1957 by U.S. quality expert Armand Feigenbaum.
TQC relies on the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to manage processes and on statistical tools to solve problems.
In the 1980s, Philip Crosby, Joseph Juran, W. Edwards Deming and Kaoru Ishikawa expanded the concept, now known as TQM, to include new tools and the idea that quality is the responsibility of all employees, managers and senior managers.
Toyota implemented TQC in the early 1960s and began transferring the system to suppliers in the late 1960s.
Synonyms: Total Quality Control, TQC, TQM.
The methodology and tools are used often by employees during kaizen activities and together form an important subsystem of lean.