How Total Quality Management transformed Japanese industry—and how its principles can build organisations that learn, improve and excel every day.
🌱 Introduction: Quality Is Not a Department — It Is a Way of Thinking
Total Quality Management (TQM) is often misunderstood as a collection of quality tools, statistical techniques, audits, inspections and improvement projects.
It is much more than that.
Total Quality Management is a philosophy of management in which every person, every process and every function continuously works towards creating greater value for the customer while improving the quality of work, the organisation and its people.
At its heart, TQM asks a deceptively simple question:
“How can we make today’s way of working better than yesterday’s?”
The answer cannot come from the Quality Department alone.
It requires leadership, strategy, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, sales, finance, human resources, service and—most importantly—the people who perform the work every day.
Japan’s remarkable transformation from a post-war manufacturing economy into a global benchmark for quality provides perhaps one of the most powerful examples of Total Quality Management in practice. 🇯🇵
🇯🇵 1. Japan’s Remarkable Total Quality Management Journey
Japan’s Total Quality Management journey did not begin with the sophisticated systems we associate with Japanese industry today.
After the Second World War, Japanese manufacturing faced enormous challenges. Japanese products were often associated internationally with low cost rather than superior quality.
The transformation began when Japanese organisations started treating quality as a management responsibility rather than merely an inspection activity.
American quality thinkers played an important role in this transformation. The teachings associated with Dr W. Edwards Deming, Dr Joseph Juran and other quality pioneers were studied, adapted and integrated into Japanese management practices.
Japan, however, did not simply copy Western quality methods.
It gradually developed a distinctive management philosophy around:
- 👥 Customer First
- ⭐ Quality First
- 🔄 Continuous Improvement — Kaizen
- 🤝 Respect for People
- 📊 Fact-based decision-making
- ⚙️ Process discipline
- 🏭 Standardisation
- 🧠 Employee participation
- 🌱 Long-term thinking
- 🔍 Problem solving at the source
- 🏢 Management commitment
The result was a fundamental transformation:
Quality moved from the inspection room to the boardroom, the shop floor and eventually into the culture of the organisation.
📈 2. From Statistical Quality Control to Total Quality Management
Understanding the evolution of quality management helps us understand Total Quality Management itself.
📊 Stage 1 — Statistical Quality Control
The initial emphasis was primarily on controlling variation and improving manufacturing processes through statistical methods.
Organisations began asking:
What is going wrong?
How much variation exists?
What are the major causes?
Is the process stable?
Tools such as control charts, Pareto analysis, histograms and cause-and-effect diagrams became powerful mechanisms for understanding processes.
But statistical control alone could not solve every organisational problem.
Quality had to expand beyond manufacturing.
🔄 Stage 2 — Total Quality Control
The concept gradually expanded from production to the entire organisation.
A production defect could originate from:
- Product design
- Supplier quality
- Procurement
- Manufacturing engineering
- Maintenance
- Logistics
- Training
- Process planning
- Management systems
Therefore, quality became a company-wide responsibility.
Toyota, for example, introduced Total Quality Control in 1961 and subsequently expanded quality management across functions including purchasing, sales, engineering and production engineering.
This was a major conceptual shift:
Quality was no longer the responsibility of the Quality Department. Quality became everyone’s responsibility.
🏆 Stage 3 — Total Quality Management
Total Quality Management took this philosophy one step further.
The question was no longer simply:
“Are we producing quality products?”
The question became:
“Are we managing the entire organisation in a way that consistently creates quality and customer value?”
This encompasses:
Customer + Strategy + People + Process + Technology + Quality + Cost + Delivery + Safety + Learning + Improvement
Total Quality Management therefore became a management philosophy and organisational system, rather than merely a quality-control methodology.
🧭 3. The Five Fundamental Ideas of Total Quality Management
Although different organisations structure their TQM systems differently, several fundamental principles remain universal.
1️⃣ Customer Orientation
The ultimate purpose of quality is not to satisfy an internal checklist.
It is to create value for the customer.
A TQM organisation continually asks:
What does the customer value?
What causes customer dissatisfaction?
What will the customer expect tomorrow?
Customer orientation includes:
- Voice of Customer
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer complaints
- Warranty
- Field quality
- Reliability
- Safety
- Delivery performance
- Product usability
- Service experience
The organisation must understand not only what the customer says, but also what the customer experiences.
2️⃣ Process Orientation ⚙️
Every result is produced by a process.
Therefore, instead of repeatedly blaming people for defects, Total Quality Management attempts to understand and improve the process that produced the defect.
This creates one of the most important shifts in quality thinking:
Do not merely inspect the output. Improve the process that creates the output.
A defect discovered during final inspection may actually be evidence that an earlier process failed to prevent the defect.
Therefore:
Quality must be built into the process rather than inspected into the product.
3️⃣ Continuous Improvement — Kaizen 🔄
TQM does not depend exclusively on breakthrough innovation.
It also believes in thousands of small improvements.
One small improvement may appear insignificant.
But imagine:
1 improvement × 1,000 people × 300 working days
The cumulative impact can become transformational.
Kaizen may involve:
- Reducing motion
- Eliminating waiting
- Preventing errors
- Improving ergonomics
- Reducing variation
- Simplifying work
- Improving productivity
- Improving safety
- Reducing energy consumption
- Improving quality
- Reducing Cost of Poor Quality
The philosophy is beautifully simple:
Today should be better than yesterday, and tomorrow should be better than today.
4️⃣ Total Employee Participation 👥
Total Quality Management cannot survive as a programme imposed by senior management.
People must become owners of quality.
The people closest to the process often understand problems better than anyone sitting several organisational levels above them.
This is why Japanese organisations developed mechanisms such as:
- QC Circles
- Suggestion systems
- Kaizen
- Small-group activities
- Visual management
- Gemba discussions
- Standardised work
- Problem-solving teams
When people are given the opportunity to identify problems and improve their own processes, quality becomes much more than compliance.
It becomes ownership.
5️⃣ Management Commitment 🏢
Perhaps the greatest misconception about Total Quality Management is that it is a Quality Department initiative.
It is not.
TQM is a management system.
The CEO must own it.
The leadership team must practise it.
Middle management must translate it into daily work.
Supervisors must coach it.
Employees must participate in it.
And the Quality function must enable, challenge and facilitate it.
When leadership stops asking questions about quality, the organisation eventually stops improving.
🚘 4. The Four Vehicles of Total Quality Management
If Total Quality Management is the philosophy, the organisation needs practical mechanisms—vehicles—to convert that philosophy into results.
A powerful way of understanding TQM is through four complementary vehicles:
1️⃣ Policy Management —
Hoshin Kanri (方針管理)
2️⃣ Daily Work Management —
Nichijo Kanri (日常管理)
3️⃣ Cross-Functional Management
4️⃣ Total Employee Involvement —
TEI
These four vehicles answer four fundamental questions:
🎯 Where are we going? — Hoshin Kanri
⚙️ How do we sustain and control today’s work? — Nichijo Kanri
🔗 How do we solve issues that cross organisational boundaries? — Cross-Functional Management
👥 How do we engage every person in improvement? — Total Employee Involvement
Together, they create a powerful operating architecture for TQM.
🎯 5. Policy Management — Hoshin Kanri
“Direction before acceleration.”
An organisation can have excellent people and excellent processes, but if everyone is moving in different directions, excellence becomes impossible.
This is where Hoshin Kanri, commonly translated as Policy Management or Policy Deployment, becomes important.
Hoshin Kanri connects:
Vision → Strategy → Annual Policy → Objectives → Measures → Actions → Results
It creates alignment between organisational priorities and the work performed at different levels.
A useful way to visualise it is:
Corporate Vision
⬇️
Strategic Priorities
⬇️
Annual Policy
⬇️
Breakthrough Objectives
⬇️
Functional Objectives
⬇️
Departmental Objectives
⬇️
Individual Actions
⬇️
Daily Management
The critical point is that policy deployment is not merely cascading targets.
It is about deploying both:
WHAT
What must be achieved?
and
HOW
How will it be achieved?
Hoshin Kanri therefore converts strategy into a system of aligned PDCA cycles.
🔄 Hoshin Kanri and PDCA
The fundamental cycle is:
Plan → Do → Check → Act
But in mature TQM, PDCA operates at multiple levels.
Top management uses PDCA for strategic objectives.
Functions use PDCA for their priorities.
Departments use PDCA for their improvement themes.
Teams use PDCA for specific problems.
Thus:
Hoshin Kanri converts strategy into aligned action and organisational learning.
⚙️ 6. Daily Work Management — Nichijo Kanri
“Strategy tells us where to go. Daily Management ensures that today’s work is performed reliably.”
The Japanese concept Nichijo Kanri refers broadly to Daily Management.
This is one of the most important—but frequently misunderstood—elements of TQM.
Daily Management is not simply:
- Preparing a daily report
- Conducting a morning meeting
- Updating a dashboard
- Reviewing yesterday’s numbers
It is a management system for maintaining and improving the normal condition of work.
The basic logic is:
Standard → Actual → Gap → Abnormality → Countermeasure → Follow-up
For example:
Standard: FPY ≥ 98%
Actual: 94%
Gap: 4 percentage points
⬇️
Abnormality identified
⬇️
Cause analysed
⬇️
Countermeasure implemented
⬇️
Effectiveness verified
⬇️
Standard revised if required
This is where Daily Management becomes powerful.
🔄 SDCA — The Engine of Daily Management
A useful distinction in TQM is:
Policy Management → PDCA
Daily Management → SDCA
Where:
S = Standardise
D = Do
C = Check
A = Act
This gives us a powerful relationship:
PDCA creates improvement.
SDCA sustains improvement.
Without SDCA, yesterday’s improvement can disappear tomorrow.
Without PDCA, today’s standard may remain unchanged even when a better way is possible.
Therefore:
PDCA + SDCA = Sustainable Continuous Improvement
📊 7. What Should Daily Management Contain?
A robust Daily Work Management system should typically include:
1️⃣ Clear Standards
What is the expected condition?
2️⃣ Control Points
Which parameters determine process health?
3️⃣ Control Items
Which indicators tell us whether the process is performing correctly?
4️⃣ Visual Management
Can abnormalities be understood quickly?
5️⃣ Daily Review
Are gaps identified every day?
6️⃣ Escalation
What happens when the process moves outside the normal condition?
7️⃣ Problem Solving
Are recurring abnormalities being systematically eliminated?
8️⃣ Standardisation
Are successful countermeasures incorporated into the standard?
The true purpose of DWM is therefore:
To make the normal condition visible, abnormalities immediately recognisable and corrective action systematic.
🔗 8. Cross-Functional Management
“The customer does not experience our organisation by department.”
This may be one of the most important principles in modern TQM.
Customers do not say:
“The Design Department gave me a poor experience.”
or:
“The Supplier Quality Department caused my warranty.”
The customer simply experiences:
The product.
The service.
The quality.
The delivery.
The reliability.
Therefore, many business problems cannot be solved by one department.
Consider a warranty problem.
It may involve:
Customer → Service → Quality → Manufacturing → Supplier → Purchase → Design → R&D
This is a cross-functional problem.
🧩 What Is Cross-Functional Management?
Cross-Functional Management creates mechanisms through which important business functions work together towards common objectives.
Typical cross-functional dimensions include:
- Quality
- Cost
- Delivery
- Safety
- Productivity
- Customer satisfaction
- Sustainability
- Warranty
- Supplier performance
- New product development
The purpose is to eliminate functional silos and manage the end-to-end value stream.
🚗 9. Example: Automotive Warranty Reduction
Suppose a vehicle has a recurring field failure.
A purely functional approach may look like this:
Quality: “We have warranty claims.”
Manufacturing: “Our process is within specification.”
Supplier: “Our component meets the drawing.”
R&D: “The design meets requirements.”
Service: “Customers are reporting failures.”
Everyone may be correct within their own silo.
Yet the customer still has a problem.
Cross-Functional Management changes the question:
“What must the entire value chain change to eliminate this customer problem?”
A cross-functional team could include:
- R&D
- Product Engineering
- Quality
- Manufacturing
- Supplier Quality
- Purchase
- Service
- Warranty
- Customer Experience
Now the problem is owned by the value stream, not by a department.
🌐 10. Cross-Functional Management Is Horizontal TQM
A useful way to understand the four vehicles is:
Hoshin Kanri =
Vertical Alignment
🎯
Cross-Functional Management =
Horizontal Alignment
🔗
Daily Management =
Operational Stability
⚙️
Total Employee Involvement =
Human Engagement
👥
Therefore:
Vertical + Horizontal + Daily + Human = Integrated TQM
This is what allows an organisation to move from isolated improvement projects towards a coherent management system.
👥 11. Total Employee Involvement — TEI
“TQM becomes real when every employee becomes an agent of quality.”
The word “Total” in Total Quality Management is critical.
It means quality cannot remain confined to:
Quality Engineers.
It cannot remain confined to:
Managers.
It cannot remain confined to:
Manufacturing.
It must involve the entire organisation.
Total Employee Involvement means creating an environment where employees:
- Understand organisational objectives
- Understand customer expectations
- Understand their process
- Know their standards
- Identify abnormalities
- Solve problems
- Suggest improvements
- Participate in Kaizen
- Participate in QC Circles
- Share knowledge
- Develop capability
- Take ownership
This changes the employee’s role from:
“I perform my job.”
to:
“I own and improve my process.”
That is a profound cultural transformation.
💡 12. QC Circles, Kaizen and Suggestion Systems
TEI can be activated through mechanisms such as:
🔵 QC Circles
Small groups systematically solving workplace problems.
🟢 Kaizen
Continuous small improvements.
🟡 Suggestion Systems
Capturing employee ideas.
🟠 Problem-Solving Teams
Bringing people together around specific business challenges.
🟣 Capability Development
Building statistical and problem-solving competence.
The objective is not simply to generate thousands of ideas.
The objective is to create people who think, solve and improve.
🏭 13. The Power of Gemba
Another Japanese concept deserves special attention:
Gemba — 現場
Gemba means the actual place where work happens.
In manufacturing, that could be:
- Assembly line
- Machine shop
- Paint shop
- Body shop
- Warehouse
- Supplier plant
- Testing laboratory
- Service workshop
The principle is simple:
Go and see the actual condition rather than managing exclusively through reports.
A meaningful Gemba Walk involves:
Observe → Ask → Understand → Analyse → Improve → Follow Up
The objective is not to find someone to blame.
The objective is to understand reality.
Gemba therefore connects beautifully with all four TQM vehicles.
Hoshin Kanri tells us what matters.
Cross-Functional Management brings the right people together.
Daily Management identifies abnormalities.
Total Employee Involvement enables the people closest to the work to improve it.
🧪 14. Total Quality Management Is Scientific Management
TQM is not based on opinions.
It is based on evidence.
This is why quality professionals need a strong understanding of statistical thinking.
Basic Quality Tools
- 📋 Check Sheet
- 📊 Pareto Chart
- 📈 Histogram
- 🐟 Cause-and-Effect Diagram
- 🔗 Scatter Diagram
- 📉 Control Chart
- 🧩 Stratification
- 🔄 Flow Chart
Advanced Problem-Solving Tools
- 5 Why
- 8D
- A3
- DMAIC
- Fault Tree Analysis
- FMEA
- Design of Experiments
- Regression Analysis
- Hypothesis Testing
- ANOVA
- Process Capability Analysis
- Measurement System Analysis
- Reliability Analysis
- Design for Six Sigma
But there is a critical principle:
A tool does not solve a problem. People solve problems using appropriate tools.
The most sophisticated statistical technique becomes useless when the problem itself has not been properly defined.
📉 15. Understanding Variation
One of Deming’s most important contributions was his emphasis on understanding variation.
Every process contains variation.
The objective is not to eliminate all variation—an impossible task.
The objective is to understand its nature.
Common Causes
Variation inherent in the process.
Special Causes
Variation arising from unusual or assignable circumstances.
This distinction matters enormously.
If we treat common-cause variation as a special cause, we may continuously tamper with a stable system.
If we treat a special cause as common cause, we may fail to remove the real source of the problem.
Therefore:
Good management requires understanding the behaviour of the system before taking action.
🧠 16. Problem Solving — From Symptoms to Root Causes
A TQM organisation does not celebrate firefighting.
It celebrates problem prevention.
Imagine warranty complaints suddenly increase.
A weak response says:
“Repair the defective vehicles.”
A better response asks:
“Why did the defect occur?”
An even better response asks:
“Why did our system allow the defect to occur?”
And the strongest response asks:
“What must we change so that this class of problem becomes structurally difficult to repeat?”
This represents the progression:
Correction → Corrective Action → Preventive Thinking → System Improvement
The ultimate objective is not merely to solve today’s problem.
It is to improve the system that created the problem.
🛡️ 17. Quality Control, Quality Assurance and TQM
These concepts are often confused.
Quality Control — QC
Primarily focuses on controlling and improving processes and outputs.
Quality Assurance — QA
Provides confidence that appropriate systems and processes are established to consistently achieve requirements.
Total Quality Management — TQM
Goes beyond both.
It integrates:
Customer + Strategy + People + Process + Quality + Cost + Delivery + Safety + Improvement + Leadership
That is why Total Quality Management is a management philosophy rather than merely a Quality function.
🚗 18. Why TQM Is Particularly Powerful in the Automotive Industry
Automotive products are complex systems.
A vehicle may involve thousands of components, hundreds of suppliers and countless process interactions.
A quality problem can originate anywhere across the value chain.
Therefore, automotive Total Quality Management must connect:
Customer → Product Planning → R&D → Design → Supplier → Manufacturing → Logistics → Sales → Service → Field
A mature system therefore manages quality across the entire product lifecycle.
Important measures can include:
- Customer complaints
- Warranty
- Field failure rate
- First Time Through
- Right First Time
- PPM
- Process capability
- Supplier PPM
- Launch quality
- Reliability
- Durability
- Cost of Poor Quality
- Delivery performance
- Safety incidents
The objective is not merely to reduce defects.
It is to create a robust value-creation system.
🤖 19. Total Quality Management in the Age of AI
TQM is not becoming obsolete because of digitalisation.
It is becoming more powerful.
Modern organisations can combine traditional quality thinking with:
- 🤖 Artificial Intelligence
- Machine Learning
- Digital Twins
- Predictive Maintenance
- Computer Vision
- Real-time SPC
- Automated Inspection
- Big Data
- IoT
- Advanced Analytics
- Digital Traceability
Imagine a production process where sensors continuously monitor critical parameters.
AI identifies an emerging pattern.
SPC detects abnormal variation.
The system alerts the operator.
The team goes to the Gemba.
The root cause is identified.
A countermeasure is implemented.
The standard is updated.
The learning is replicated across other processes and plants.
That is the potential of Digital TQM.
🎮 20. What Can Total Quality Management Learn from Gaming?
Interestingly, there is something valuable to learn from gaming.
Modern games are built around continuous feedback.
A player:
Acts → Receives Feedback → Learns → Adjusts → Tries Again → Improves
That is remarkably similar to:
PDCA
🎮 Play
⬇️
📊 Measure
⬇️
🧠 Learn
⬇️
🔧 Improve
⬇️
🔄 Repeat
Good games also provide:
- 🎯 Clear objectives
- ⚡ Immediate feedback
- 📈 Visible progress
- 🧩 Challenges
- 🏆 Rewards
- 🧠 Learning curves
- 🤝 Team collaboration
- 🔄 Continuous adaptation
Organisations can learn from this psychology.
If employees cannot see their performance, cannot understand the gap and cannot experience the satisfaction of improvement, continuous improvement can quickly become another corporate slogan.
Therefore, TQM should make improvement:
Visible.
Meaningful.
Measurable.
Engaging.
🔄 21. PDCA and SDCA — The Twin Engines of TQM
At the centre of Total Quality Management lie two complementary cycles.
🔵 PDCA
Plan → Do → Check → Act
Used to create improvement.
🟢 SDCA
Standardise → Do → Check → Act
Used to maintain and stabilise the standard.
The relationship is:
SDCA → PDCA → SDCA → PDCA → SDCA
First establish and stabilise the standard.
Then improve it.
Then standardise the improvement.
Then improve again.
This creates a never-ending cycle of organisational learning.
🌀 22. The Four Vehicles as One TQM Operating System
The real power of TQM emerges when the four vehicles operate as an integrated system.
🎯 HOSHIN KANRI
Defines strategic direction
⬇️
🔗 CROSS-FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT
Connects functions around critical business priorities
⬇️
⚙️ NICHIJO KANRI
Controls and sustains daily performance
⬇️
👥 TOTAL EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT
Engages people to solve problems and improve the system
⬇️
📈 BUSINESS RESULTS
Customer + Quality + Cost + Delivery + Safety + People
⬇️
🔄 LEARNING
Feeds learning into the next PDCA cycle
And the cycle begins again.
🌟 23. The Four Vehicles — One Simple Way to Remember Them
The four vehicles of Total Quality Management can be remembered through four simple questions:
🎯 HOSHIN KANRI asks:
“WHERE ARE WE GOING?”
It provides strategic direction and alignment.
🔗 CROSS-FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT asks:
“HOW DO WE WORK TOGETHER?”
It breaks functional silos and manages end-to-end business priorities.
⚙️ NICHIJO KANRI asks:
“HOW DO WE PERFORM AND SUSTAIN TODAY?”
It establishes standards, controls abnormalities and maintains process stability.
👥 TOTAL EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT asks:
“WHO WILL MAKE IT BETTER?”
It creates ownership, participation, capability and continuous improvement.
Together:
Direction + Integration + Stability + Ownership = TQM Excellence
🌟 24. From Quality Management to Quality Culture
The ultimate destination of TQM is not a certificate.
It is not an award.
It is not a score.
It is not even a particular set of tools.
The ultimate destination is:
QUALITY CULTURE
A quality culture exists when people naturally ask:
“What does the customer need?”
“What does the data tell us?”
“What is the abnormality?”
“Why did this happen?”
“How can we prevent recurrence?”
“What can we improve today?”
When these questions become part of everyday behaviour, Total Quality Management has moved from a programme to a culture.
🌏 25. The Ultimate Lesson from Japan
Perhaps the greatest lesson from Japan is not how to use a Pareto chart.
It is not how to conduct a QC Circle.
It is not even how to implement Kaizen.
The deeper lesson is this:
Quality must become a way of thinking before it can become a way of working.
Japan demonstrated that quality can become a national competitive capability when organisations combine:
Long-term thinking + Customer Orientation + Scientific Management + Disciplined Processes + Continuous Improvement + Employee Participation + Leadership Commitment
And the four TQM vehicles provide the organisational architecture to make that philosophy operational:
Hoshin Kanri → Direction
Cross-Functional Management → Integration
Nichijo Kanri → Stability
Total Employee Involvement → Ownership
This is the deeper genius of the Japanese approach.
🚀 26. The Future of Total Quality Management
The next generation of TQM will not be limited to traditional Quality Departments.
It will increasingly integrate:
TQM + Lean + TPM + Six Sigma + AI + Digitalisation + Sustainability + Human Capability
The future organisation will need to manage not only:
Quality of Products
but also:
- Quality of Experience
- Quality of Data
- Quality of Decisions
- Quality of Innovation
- Quality of Sustainability
- Quality of Leadership
- Quality of Learning
Ultimately:
The quality of an organisation can never sustainably exceed the quality of its management system.
🏁 Conclusion: Building Organisations That Improve Every Day
Total Quality Management is not about creating a perfect organisation.
There is no perfect organisation.
TQM is about creating an organisation that is capable of continuously becoming better.
It is about transforming:
Inspection → Prevention
Problems → Learning
Employees → Owners
Data → Decisions
Processes → Capability
Customers → Partners
Leadership → Stewardship
Improvement → Culture
And perhaps most importantly:
TQM transforms quality from something an organisation checks into something an organisation lives.
The Japanese journey teaches us that world-class quality is not created overnight.
It is built through thousands of disciplined decisions, repeated every day, by thousands of people, over many years.
🇯🇵 Japan did not merely teach the world how to make better products. It demonstrated how an organisation could learn to manage itself better.
And that may be the most enduring lesson of Total Quality Management.
Because excellence is not an event.
Excellence is a habit.
And Total Quality Management is the management philosophy that makes that habit sustainable.
🌟
📚 Selected References
- Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) — TQM education and management programmes covering Policy Management, Daily Management and Cross-Functional Management.
- JUSE — Policy Management Programme — Policy formulation, deployment, control and evaluation.
- Japanese Society for Quality Control (JSQC) — Guidance on Daily Management as a core component of TQM.
- Toyota Motor Corporation — Historical development of Toyota’s Quality Management and TQM system.
- Deming Prize / JUSE — Development of the Japanese quality-management movement.
- Tata Business Excellence Group / Tata organisations — Practical application of Policy Management, Daily Management and Cross-Functional Management.
- Deming, W. Edwards — Out of the Crisis.
- Juran, Joseph M. — Juran on Quality by Design.
- Imai, Masaaki — Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success.
- Ishikawa, Kaoru — What Is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way.
