Quality Management Evolution from the Past to Present: Challenges for Tomorrow

Abstract Background and purpose: The quality management field has been studied for more than 100 years dating back to the early 1900s when Fredrick W. Taylor is known as the father of Scientific Management, stressed the importance of quality inspection. This paper describes how quality management field has developed and evolved to date, particularly by tracking its focus over time. Design/Methodology/Approach: A systematic approach to literature review was adapted in this research. Identifying the gurus and the scholars in this field makes it possible for the researchers to review their works, which are, mainly, in the form of books and journal articles. Process in getting literature review that has been conducted include quality management in general, as well as ‘evolution of quality management’ and ‘development of quality management’ respectively in capturing the field of quality management and thus, illustrating how the quality management field has evolved over the time. Results: It appears that quality management literature have evolved through time, and as they evolved, the principles, systems, tools and techniques have changed. As a result of the study, this paper also provides the synthesis of quality management literature over time according to the key focus and gives a new perspective for the further research. Conclusions: The historical review allows the researchers to establish the pattern of quality – the ‘focus, principles, systems, and tools and techniques’ over time. Our observations have confirmed that as the focus has changed, the principles have also changed and as the principles have changed, the systems, tools and techniques also have changed in quality management field.