Appendix 2: Quality and TQM

This appendix discusses the management of quality of a product, service or a process is not best done in isolation, but as part of a total quality management affecting it directly or indirectly. Such an approach is known as Total Quality Management (TQM) and a brief summary of it is given here. TQM may be defined as philosophy and company practices that aim to harness the human and material resources in the most effective way to achieve the objectives of the organisation. TQM is basically geared for quality performance of every function in an organisation. The characteristics of TQM are embraced in universal participation; focus on customer needs; everything is a process which contributes to quality; continuous process improvement; better performance at lower cost; excellence in communication and understanding.