The Quality Area

This area has been added to the website to disseminate information on quality (quality management history, gurus, TQM theories, process improvement, organisational excellence etc.).

If you have material which would make a useful addition to this page, please send it to editor@therqa.com

Research needs quality management system

World Health Organisation - TDRnews This article was orginally published in the May 2010 issue of TDRnews, and is used with the permission from the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), which is executed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO.

Click here to view the article

UK Department of Trade and Industry

Below are links to 13 documents produced by the Department of Trade and Industry in the United Kingdom. These free resources are an excellent guide to the quality management area, for practical application in organisations, for study and learning and for teaching and training others.

These free materials are provided by permission of the UK Department of Industry - now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - which is gratefully acknowledged. The branding on the materials is now obsolete but the quality content is unaffected and the materials remain relevant for training, learning and reference. The materials listed below are subject to Crown Copyright.

01. The Evolution of Quality (Crown Copyright)

02. The Original Quality Gurus (Crown Copyright)

03. Total Quality Management (Crown Copyright)

04. Process Understanding and Improvement (Crown Copyright)

05. Tools and Techniques for Process Improvement (Crown Copyright)

06. People Development and Teamwork (Crown Copyright)

07. Quality Management Systems (Crown Copyright)

08. Performance Measurement (Crown Copyright)

09. A Framework for Excellence (Crown Copyright)

10. Self-Assessment and Awards (Crown Copyright)

11. Benchmarking (Crown Copyright)

12. Implement - from Quality to Organisational Excellence (Crown Copyright)

13. Six Sigma Fact Sheet (Crown Copyright)

"It is appropriate to note the passing of Joseph Juran, a seminal figure in the history of quality management, who died 28th February 2008, aged 103. Juran did not only teach the Japanese about quality management, he was also arguably the first quality expert to emphasise that no quality management system works unless people are empowered and committed to take responsibility for quality - as an ongoing process - effectively for quality to become part of people's behavious and attitudes - an ethos."

Alan Chapman (2008)

European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)

EFQM is a non-for-profit membership foundation who have spent over 20 years sharing what works between their member organisations as a way to help them implement their strategies. Through their network of members comprising private and public organisations of every size and sector, EFQM applies its know-how and extracts outstanding approaches by engaging with executives and front-line managers.

Click here for a link to EFQM