The birth of total quality in the United States came as a direct response to the quality revolution in Japan following World War II. The Japanese welcomed the input of Americans Joseph M. Juran and W. Edwards Deming and rather than concentrating on inspection, focused on improving all organizational processes through the people who used them.

In the few years since the turn of the century, the quality movement seems to have matured beyond Total Quality. New quality systems have evolved from the foundations of Deming, Juran and the early Japanese practitioners of quality, and quality has moved beyond manufacturing into service, healthcare, education and government sectors. (www.asq.org)

ISO - International Organization for Standardization (www.iso.org) is a network of (157) countries) of the National Standards Institute.

ISO 9001 contains the quality management system requirements that can be used by any organization to show its ability to meet organizations internal requirements, customers' requirements as well as regulatory requirements. There are eight quality management principles that can help set up a quality management system:

• Customer Focus
• Leadership
• Involvement of People
• Process Approach
• System Approach to Management
• Continual Improvement
• Factual Approach to Decision Making
• Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA):

An award established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to raise awareness of quality management and recognize U.S. companies that have implemented successful quality management systems. Two awards may be given annually in each of five categories: manufacturing company, service company, small business, education and healthcare. The award is named after the late Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, a proponent of quality management. The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology manages the award, and ASQ administers it.

Performance Excellence Criteria:

1. Leadership: How upper management leads the organization, and how the organization leads within the community.
2. Strategic planning: How the organization establishes and plans to implement strategic directions.
3. Customer and market focus: How the organization builds and maintains strong, lasting relationships with customers.
4. Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management: How the organization uses data to support key processes and manage performance.
5. Human resource focus: How the organization empowers and involves its workforce.
6. Process management: How the organization designs, manages and improves key processes.
7. Business/organizational performance results: How the organization performs in terms of customer satisfaction, finances, human resources, supplier and partner performance, operations, governance and social responsibility, and how the organization compares to its competitors.

Government and Nonprofit Organizations Eligible for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Beginning in 2007, government and nonprofit organizations will be eligible to apply for this great opportunity to assess performance and possibly receive recognition for achievements in quality and business performance. (www.asq.org)