QUALITY 21

摘要

In the last two decades, organisations have experienced a period of great change in their markets and operations. International and domestic competition has meant that many organisations have faced an increasingly turbulent and hostile environment. Customers have become more informed and demanding, competition more intense and the pace of technological change has quickened. Regulators and consumer groups have also added to these pressures. As a result, many organisations have adopted a range of improvement approaches. We have seen the growing adoption of QMSs like ISO 9000, the emergence of TQM, as well as a whole host of improvement initiatives like business process engineering, business excellence, performance excellence, lean thinking, six sigma etc The battle weary could be excused from taking a rather jaundiced view of this ever-lengthening list of quality techniques but, on the whole, they share many of the principles and elements that are found in TQM.