Excerpt
TODAY, the word “quality” is on everyone's lips. Advertisements persuade consumers to buy products on the basis of quality. “Quality is Job 1” says the Ford slogan. What has caused all this attention to quality is a marketplace reaction to a simple economic fact: the Japanese are capturing more and more U.S. consumer loyalty to products that are both durable and priced right.
The principles underlying “total quality management,” or TQM, were first enunciated in the statistical quality control methods espoused by W. Edwards Deming. Japanese managers, being serious students, learned quickly and thoroughly the processes Deming espoused.
It is unnecessary to detail the industrial miracle that has transformed a thoroughly defeated nation to the number one trading nation in the world today. Moreover, this is not an article about Japanese prowess in the global marketplace. The question I would like to consider is straightforward: Can a process that largely grew out of manufacturing efficiencies and statistical control procedures be applied to the public sector where quality and quantity are difficult to measure? More specifically, can …
Footnotes
C. Paul Barlow is executive director of the Natural Resources Conservation Institute, P.O. Box 1945, Orem, Utah 84059.
- Copyright 1990 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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