Pic courtesy: Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology, Retrieved November 27, 2015, from https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/95fall/p95au24.cfm
Ishikawa Kaoru was a forerunner of spreading TQM in Japan. He believed “In order to improve total quality, only relied on Quality Control Department was not enough, all members of the organization need to participate in improving processes.” His theory provides the good quality and service to customers,helps Japan to recover from devastation after World War II during the 1950s. In the time period of the 1960s and 70s, Japan was in the rapid economic growth. After 1970, Japan started to become one of highly developed countries in the World, and a member of the G7, the G8, and the G20.
Another successful study case of TQM is Xerox. Under implementing TQM, it saved some overhead costs from reducing supplier base and even increased some accountability of suppliers. It also built leadership teams that consisted of people with different specialties. These teams could find ways to cut costs all the way and handle difficult employees and anything in between. Finally, Xerox beat the low-price competitors from Japan and won the Baldrige Award as well as a few other awards. Then, it became a large developed company and was consistently placed in the list of Fortune 500 Companies.
References
https://github.com/gngdb/EPDM/wiki/Implementation-of-TQM:-A-Case-Study-in-Xerox
Quality Monthly CSQ vol.51 No.9 (2015). Taiwan: Chinese Society for Quality