Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
What is quality? How can we achieve and sustain it? In this impressive study, Main, formerly a Fortune magazine editor, focuses on total quality management’s (TQM) quest for the “holy grail.” Main’s coverage of the need for TQM is intriguing. As American corporations grew bigger and older, they became self-destructive, he notes. Studying some key TQM corporations and leaders (Roger Milliken; Motorola’s Robert Galvin) in depth, he also examines ways in which TQM can be harnessed by government and the professions. “Fumblers” (corporations that “have been trying for quality for years without succeeding”) are also profiled. Main, weaving a rich tapestry free of statistics and math, has provided a sophisticated view of TQM.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Although long revered in Japan, quality guru W. Edwards Deming remained almost anonymous in the U.S. until recently. Ironically, Joseph M. Juran, who some argue deserves even more credit than Deming for the “quality revolution,” is still relatively unknown. The Juran Institute is his consulting firm specializing in total quality management (TQM) systems. Under the institute’s auspices, Main, a former member of Fortune’s board of editors, reports on the status of TQM in the U.S. today. Having interviewed hundreds who have been involved with implementing TQM within their own organizations, Main documents successes and, more important, failures in the effort to improve quality and change thinking. Even some of those who were successful early on continue to find obstacles; others have suffered letdowns after their initial bursts of enthusiasm. In what may be one of the most important of the many books on quality, Main shows others how to learn from those efforts. David Rouse
Order Quality Wars: The Triumphs and Defeats of American Business: Jeremy Main form Amazon.
Leave a comment