The modern quality movement: Origins, development and trends

Abstract

The pursuit of quality is an age-old endeavour that dates back to the beginning of civilization. Human beings have always encountered problems pertaining to quality, although the approaches employed to manage it have differed from era to era. It was not until the twentieth century that quality came to centre stage due to the emergence of massive forces, which demanded a quality revolution. Since then, different sets of ideas, philosophies, principles, and methods have emerged. Quality continues to become a significant object of study and application in business, government, and non-profit sectors. It will probably take many decades if not a whole century for the quality management discipline to mature. In view of this, the twenty-first century may well become known to historians as the century of quality.

Keywords:

• Lean production
• lean enterprise
• lean Six Sigma
• quality
• quality movement
• quality control
• quality management systems
• Six Sigma
• statistical quality control
• total quality management